Vandread: The Unknown Soldier
by Ian Bekker
Summary: COMPLETE A couple of survivors are found by the crew of the Nirvana on a warship that suddenly appeared in TarakMejale space. One of them is a soldier. Can the soldier get used to his new home while facing the demons of his past? Please R & R.
1. Prologue: Evacuation

Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread, Gonzo does.

Author's Notes: Italics represent thoughts and flashbacks.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Prologue: Evacuation**

_Location: Space Station Gloria, in orbit around Solaris_

The wailing alarm filled the corridors of the station with their harsh tones, but Captain Aidan Mercer hardly noticed. He had a mission to complete. He was assigned to get the Prime Minister's daughter, Maria, safely off the station and onboard the S.F.S. Artemis, an Essex Class frigate. Then they are to use the ship's jump drives to jump out of the system to a safe location.

"Hurry up!" he shouted to Maria, who was starting to slow down, due to fatigue. "There's no time to rest."

"I know that!" she shot back, panting from running.

Then the threat indicator on the Heads-Up Display installed into Aidan's helmet identified four marines heading down the corridor to the left of their current location. He shoved Maria into the nearest room, and found a spacesuit and threw it to her.

"Put this on," he ordered her.

"Alright," she said in a shaky voice.

Just as she finished getting into the suit, the marines barged down the corridor towards them, weapons raised. Aidan squeezed the trigger of his Raptor assault rifle, sending several rounds into the first marine, then the second. The two remaining marines took cover around the corner. Glancing to his left, he saw a view port, next to the hiding marines. He smiled grimly, but no one would have noticed because of his helmet's reflective visor. He fired the grenade launcher, sending a high-explosive armor-piercing grenade directly at the view port. The grenade, meant to pierce heavy armor, would easily shatter the thinly armored glass. Just as he fired the grenade, one of the marines fired a three-round burst that hit him in the right shoulder. He grunted in pain as one of the bullets managed penetrate his armor, and go completely through his shoulder. He slammed his the door panel with his armored fist. The door shut just as the grenade exploded, allowing both marines to feel the effects of explosive decompression firsthand.

"Captain, are you all right?" Maria asked, concern evident in her voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he coughed out.

"Come on, we don't have much time," he said with a slight hint of pain.

They continued down one of the corridors that lead to the docks, Aidan gunning down any resistance that got in the way. Once they arrived, they noticed a group of Solaris soldiers in the middle of a firefight with the rebel marines, and both sides seem to be evenly matched. Until now. Maria took behind one of the steel crates, while Aidan moved up to assist the soldiers.

"I'm Captain Aidan Mercer, who's in charge here?" he said loud enough for all of the men to hear.

"I am, Sergeant Jacob Masters, sir," the soldier to his left said.

"Give me a sitrep," he ordered the Sergeant.

"Yes sir, they have control over the docks in this area, and we're currently pinned down," he reported over the cracks of gun and laser fire.

The main enemy force was holed up in front of the control center near the loading docks. Aidan quickly formulated a plan in his mind. He motioned for the Sergeant.

"Sergeant Masters, have two of your men look after the Prime Minister's daughter," he pointed to her crouched behind the crates. "It is imperative that harm come to her, then have the rest of your men follow on my orders, I have a plan." The Sergeant nodded and rattled off the commands to his men.

"Alright, you three lay down some cover fire," he motioned to the troopers behind some rubble. "The two of you, follow on my order," he commanded the two nearest troops, as he drew his Falcon handgun from it's holster on the small of his back. Unlike the standard model, his Falcon was a special ops variant, as it was equipped with an integral laser sight.

"Now!" he shouted and the three soldiers started laying down suppressive fire, keeping the enemies heads down. Motioning for the two soldiers to follow, Aidan charged for the enemy position, then suddenly dropped to one knee and aimed for the nearest enemy. The automatic pistol coughed harshly as he squeezed the trigger. The soldier collapsed to the ground, a bullet in his throat. Before the second one could react, he put a couple rounds into his chest. He then advanced forward, putting down the soldiers that got in his way. When he got to the door, he tried opening it, but it was locked. One of the soldiers that was with him pulled an explosive device out of the rucksack he was carrying. He put the device on the door and set the timer for ten seconds.

Aidan and the soldiers rapidly moved away as the device blasted the door open. Moving to the edge of the hole where the door used to be, he nodded to the other soldier. The soldier pulled the pin on a smoke grenade and tossed it into the room. The room rapidly filled up with smoke, obscuring the vision and making it hard to breathe for anyone in there. Activating his armor's thermal imaging, and dived into the room. He located and dispatched every enemy he spotted. As the smoke started to clear, he noticed one more enemy soldier in the corner of his eye. He reflexively aimed his gun and squeezed the trigger.

Click. Click. _Damn, out of ammo._ He threw the empty weapon down. The soldier raised his laser rifle and took aim. But before he could fire, Aidan threw himself into a rolling dive and picked up a laser pistol that one of the marines previously dropped. Twisting into a squat ball, he planted his right foot and turned back toward the marine, pistol in hand. Two cracks split the air, and the rifle clattered to the floor. The marine stood there for a few seconds, and fell to the deck with a thud, a hole through his chest. Getting up, Aidan felt a burning pain for a few seconds before his armor administered painkillers, effectively numbing the pain. The laser blast grazed his left leg, and melted through his armor.

"Area secure," he said into his comm with a sigh, and picked up the rifle that dead marine dropped, as well as his Falcon pistol.

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"What in the bloody hell is takin' them so long?!" Hector Cranston, Captain of the S.F.S Artemis barked to the commo tech.

"They got held up near the docks by the rebel forces," the tech replied.

"Damn Earth-lovin' rebel bastards," he snarled.

"Captain Cranston, the target is safely on board," Aidan announced over the comm.

"Very well, Major Aidan Mercer," the Captain replied. He did not make a mistake in addressing Aidan by a higher rank than he actually held. Tradition dictated that there be only one captain aboard ship at any one time. Everyone else who held the rank, especially ground-pounders, were given the honorary and very temporary rank of Major.

"Helmsman, undock and take engines to full, we're getting out of here," he ordered.

"Aye sir, undock and engines to full," the helmsman confirmed the order and did as such.

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Maria could feel the ship lurch under her feet as it undocked , and the thrust of it's massive engines as it moved away from the station. She took off the helmet to her spacesuit, allowing her violet hair fall down to her shoulders. She let out a sigh and looked at Aidan, who was standing off to her side with a laser rifle slung over his shoulder, and a laser pistol in his left hand. There was a barely audible hiss as he lifted up the visor to his helmet. He checked the power pack in the handgrip of the pistol and then tossed it to her. It almost fumbled out of her hands as she caught it.

"What is this for?" she asked dryly.

"For your protection, you may need it," he answered in a flat tone.

She gave him a hard glance, and he just stared back at her, showing no hint of emotion. She then looked down at the pistol in her hands, and looked back at him. She opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted when the ship rocked violently. She was thrown off of her feet, and she felt her head hit the deck, and the blackness that came a few seconds later.

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"What in the bloody hell was that!?" Cranston cursed as a second hammer blow struck his ship.

"Sir, an enemy cruiser has just locked their anti-ship missiles onto the Artemis," one of the techs replied in a frightened tone.

"Damn, charge the jump drives, we're gettin' the hell outta here," he bellowed.

"Aye sir," was the techs only reply.

"Sir, the enemy is launching fighters," the sensor operator announced, his voice surprisingly calm.

"Well, launch the Strikers to intercept them," Cranston commanded.

"We can't sir," the damage control officer said.

"Why not?" Cranston barked at the officer.

"Because that last hit damaged the hangar doors, they won't open," the officer replied.

"Well, damn," he muttered.

"Jump drives fully charged, sir," the helmsman announced.

"Alright, engage jump dri…" the rest of his order went unsaid as a fireball erupted from the bridge's main liftshaft, literally incinerating one of the techs that was walking in front of it. It hurled Cranston across the bridge and he slammed his head on one of the already blood-slicked consoles. Fighting a wave of darkness that threatened to drag him into oblivion, Cranston dragged himself to the helmsman's console and shoved aside the bloody corpse at the controls. With all of his remaining strength, he slammed down on a button and a loud, raucous horn sounded throughout the ship, but Cranston could no longer hear it, or anything else.

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A few seconds after Maria hit the ground, Aidan lost his footing but caught himself before he could fall. He looked around and saw that the ship was severely damaged by the way it looked from the room he was in. He could only imagine how bad the ship looked on the outside. All of a sudden, he heard a loud horn sound several times throughout the ship. He knew the ship would be jumping out of this hellzone to a safer location in about a minute or so.

He walked over and gently picked Maria up. Cradling her in his arms, he walked over to a bench and laid her down there. He proceeded to move over to sit down, because he didn't want to stand while he went through the jump. But before he could get there, the ship shook violently, and an overhead beam fell loose from its supports and hit him with a glancing blow that struck him in the head and left shoulder. Even though it was just a glancing blow, it had enough force to knock him face first onto the deck.

"Shit," he gasped as he planted his hands on the deck and tried to push himself up. But before he could do that, the universe seemed to expand around him, lights and sound hit him with almost physical force, then as quick as it came, it was gone. He finally succumbed to the pain and was swept into darkness.

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As you can see, I'm redoing this story, because, frankly, I wasn't satisfied with it. Let me know what you think.


	2. Chapter One: Encounter

Disclaimer: As you all know, I don't own Vandread.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter One: Encounter**

_Location: Outside the Magnetic Storm, on the edge of Tarakian/Mejalean space._

Vibrations shook her Dread as it took another series of hits to its shields from a cube-type. Meia cursed under her breath as she brought her fighter around to give chase to the enemy that shot at her. As soon as she had a lock, she fired, sending several laser bolts into the enemy cube, ripping it apart. She then focused her attention on one of the larger ships and launched several missiles. The ship buckled in and exploded as the high-explosive warheads impacted on its surface.

A few weeks after the last major battle of the harvest war, several scattered groups from the Earth fleet were located on the edge of the system, close to the magnetic storm. Being the most experienced and capable, the Nirvana was tasked with hunting down the last remnants of them. Meia had no qualms about that, after all Earth was the enemy, and they deserved no mercy. The battle they are currently engaged in is with the last group of them.

"That's the last of them!" Hibiki cheerfully shouted over the commline as he and Dita blasted the last enemy ship into atoms.

Meia let out a sigh and leaned back in her seat. "Good, now let's return to the Nirvana."

"Copy that," Hibiki and Dita replied in unison.

As she turned her Dread around and headed towards the Nirvana, something caught her eye. As she looked over, she saw what appeared to be a flash, and a large ship stretched into reality right in front of her eyes.

"What the hell is that?!" Hibiki asked, his voice full of excitement.

"I don't know, but we're going to find out," she throatily replied as she towards the vessel.

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"Captain…"

"Captain…"

"Aidan…"

Consciousness slowly returned to Aidan like dawn rising over a fog-shrouded moor. His vision still blurred, he looked up to see the face of a young woman with dark, shoulder-length hair.

"Sakura…" he muttered, as he attempted to lift himself up. He collapsed back to the floor as he realized his left arm wouldn't move. He felt no pain, but he knew that was because of the painkillers administered by his suit. He assumed his left arm was dislocated. Forcing himself into a sitting position, he then stood up. His vision cleared, he looked at the woman and saw that it was Maria.

When he got up, she let out a sigh of relief. "Good, you're okay."

He ignored her as he took hold of his left arm and forced it back into its socket. There was a loud pop as he did that, and he saw Maria cringe as it met her ears. He walked over to the doors and depressed the stud that opened it.

"Come on," he said.

"Sure," she replied as she got up and followed him out into the corridor. "Where are we going?" she asked as they walked.

"We're heading to the bridge," he answered quietly.

They walked for a few more minutes, Maria following quietly behind, until they got to the doors that lead to the bridge. Luckily they were on the same deck as the bridge, because the elevator was destroyed by an explosion. Once they stepped into the bridge, Maria suddenly became white in the face. She covered her mouth and turned away, sickened by the scene in front of her.

The bridge was pretty much in ruins, with a good portion of it covered in blood. Several bodies lay in the twisted, huddled heaps on the floor. The smell of death wreaked throughout the room, and it started to make her sick. As she looked back at Aidan, he seemed not to be affected by all of the death in the room. He noticed something, and started walking towards it. He stepped over a body as if it were nothing more than a log in his way.

He kneeled over what appeared to the body of the captain. She followed him in there, and saw a pool of blood around his head.

"He's dead," Aidan said, and without another word he walked over to what appeared to be the communications console. He glanced down at the tech slumped over the controls. The dead tech was female, and to Aidan couldn't have been a day over nineteen. He picked up the dead tech and gently laid her on the ground out of the way. He then took off his helmet and set it down on the edge of the console, and then put on the headset and started to broadcast a distress signal. After a couple of minutes, he took it off and threw it down.

"Dammit!" he cursed. "It doesn't work." Then something caught his eye, he looked out the bridge viewport and saw a large silver ship in the middle of it.

"What the hell…"

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As she took another pass around the ship, Meia scanned every major detail she could find out about the ship. By the several gun ports that ran along the length of the vessel, she knew it to be a warship. The several scorch marks and damages to it, she assumed that it just recently saw battle, and was on the losing end of it. Numerous questions still ran through her head. Questions like 'Where did it come from?' 'Who did it fight?' 'Was it the Earth fleet?' And the final question, 'Were there any survivors?'

She keyed her communications system. "Captain, I'd like permission to dock with the ship and search for survivors."

The response came back instantly. "Permission granted, but wait a minute, Duero and few others are taking the shuttle, they'll help you."

"Roger, Captain."

As she flew in front of what she thought was the bridge of the ship, she thought she saw someone standing near the view port.

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As Aidan saw the fighter pass the bridge, he knew they weren't part of the rebel force, because that was a fighter he had never seen before, but he didn't want to take any chances.

He turned to Maria. "We're going to have visitors."

"Who are they? Was her only reply.

"I don't know," he responded.

He went over to the only operational computer on the bridge, and inserted a disc. He then began typing as he started to download every bit of valuable data from the ship's memory core. As soon as he was done, he erased the ship's entire memory bank. He unslung his laser rifle and fired three shots into the computer. The smell of ozone entered the room, as the computer was fried, sparks shooting from it. He then walked over and picked up his helmet and put it on. He walked over to Maria and put a hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her.

"I want you to stay here and lock the doors after I exit the bridge," he said as he walked just outside the doors.

"What are you going to do," she asked.

"I'm going to greet our guests," he said as he lowered the visor of his helmet.

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As she slowly walked down the darkened corridor, Meia glanced briefly into one of the rooms, and saw nobody in there. To her it felt like she was on a abandoned ship, as it appeared that no one was alive onboard. So far, every member of the crew they found was already dead.

"All this death, who could have done this?" she quietly asked herself.

"Did you say something?" Jura asked.

"No," she replied as something caught her eye. She walked over to where she saw and found another body, this time a woman's. As she scanned the body, she a huge gash along the stomach and a poll of blood underneath.

"Oh my…" Jura gasped as she clasped her hands over her mouth.

Meia wanted to do the same, but instead locked her face into an impassive mask. She had to be the strong leader type that everyone saw her as.

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Aidan walked slowly down the dark corridor searching the area for the intruders that he knew were somewhere on this deck. He continued his advance until he heard a noise, stopping dead in his tracks and trying to locate its source. He pressed a few buttons on the controls on his left forearm, until it said 'Optical Camouflage' and he tapped the activation stud. The armor he wore became invisible, but not completely. He could still be picked by thermal or night-vision equipment, and if he made any fast movements he would be also be seen as a distortion. He thumbed the safety off of the machine pistol he recovered, and grinned. The intruders would learn why his codename is 'Spectre.'

He moved closer to the noises, which he figured out to be somebody talking, probably female. He crept closer and scanned the corridor for his target. He located a single scantily clad dark-haired female, and from what he could tell, she was younger than him. He paid little attention to that as his gaze fell down on the holstered firearm at her side.

_She's not military, so she must be something else, a pirate. _As the thought dawned on him he aimed his weapon down the corridor and activated the laser sight. The red laser dot centered on her chest, and his finger started to tighten on the trigger.

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Barnette cautiously walked down one of the many dark corridors of this warship, searching for any survivors, if there were any. She continued her advance for a few more steps then stopped. She suddenly felt like she was being watched, she looked around, but saw no one. That's when she noticed a little red dot on her chest. She immediately dove to her right as a the loud sound of gunfire sailed through air where she once stood. She winced as the bullet grazed her left arm.

She freed her firearm from its holster as quickly as possible and aimed in the general direction of where the shots came from, but saw no one. Then suddenly and without warning, the air came to violent life as a ghostly figure dashed towards her. Her fear started to well up inside of her and she fired several shots at the supposed apparition. To her surprise, a few of the shots connected, and she realized that this was not a ghost.

The figure didn't stop or slow down as the bullets hit it, but kept on charging at her. The figure stopped right in front of her, and she flung her right arm for a sidearm blow, but it was blocked. Before she could react, she felt a sharp pain in her abdomen as the air was knocked out of her. She collapsed to the deck, gasping for air, and she looked up to see a figure in front of her, but it was no longer invisible. The figure was wearing black armor, and he raised his gun, and pointed it at her head.

"Identify yourself," his voice was cold and impersonal.

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Well, here's the first chapter, and I'm currently working on the second one. Let me know what you think.


	3. Chapter Two: Standoff

Disclaimer: Vandread is not mine, although I wish it was.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Two: Standoff**

_Location: S.F.S Artemis, Main deck._

Meia was already on the move when she heard several gunshots. Jura was trailing a little bit behind her as she made a dash to where she heard the shots. When she got there, she was shocked at what she saw. Barnette was on the floor holding her stomach, and a black armored figure stood over her, pointing a gun at her head.

"No! Barnette!" Jura screamed as she drew her saber and charged the black figure. The figure noticed her, and took his attention away from Barnette to meet this new threat. He raised his gun, but before he could fire, a well placed swing from Jura's saber knocked it out of his hand. Determined to knock him off-guard, Meia raised her right arm and fired her ring laser. Her aim was dead-on, both shots hitting him high in the chest, knocking him back.

The figure regained his footing, and she saw that neither of her shots penetrated the armor. Jura attacked again, and with what would have surely been a decapitating blow, but the figure raised his right arm and the sword struck the armored gauntlet. In an unexpected move, the figure grabbed the blade of the sword and pulled it towards him, forcing it from her hands. He then delivered a stunning round kick to her abdomen, knocking her to the floor.

He then charged towards Meia, she tried to fire her laser, but he was too quick. She brought her arms up to guard her face from a punch that knocked her back.

"Damn, he's fast!" she exclaimed as the figure attempted another punch, but she ducked under and shifted behind him. She kicked him in the back of the knees, and he fell to the ground. She jumped onto his back and pointed her laser at the back of his head.

"Who are you and why did you attack us?" she demanded, pinning him to the ground.

"Why would I tell you, _pirate_?" he spat. It seemed to Meia that when he said pirate, it sounded like a curse. And with that, he broke her hold, and knocked her off of him, and then he pinned her to the ground. She stared at the black, faceless visor, and then she heard a loud bang, and half of the visor shattered, raining pieces of it onto her face. She kicked him off, then got up to see Barnette, holding her gun.

Struggling to his feet, the figure's hand lowered from his helmet. Barnette shot him several more times, knocking him off of his feet. He fell to the deck, and didn't move. Barnette walked over there, and aimed the gun at his head. Before she could do anything else, the figure's legs snaked out, tripping her. The figure got up and grabbed her gun, and pointed it at her. His finger started to tighten on the trigger.

"Captain Aidan Mercer, I command you to stand down!" commanded an unfamiliar female voice.

Slowly, he eased up on the trigger, and lowered the gun. He ejected the magazine, snapped back the slide to eject the round in the firing chamber, and tossed it to Barnette. Turning to the woman that ordered him to stand down. He took off his battered helmet, and dropped it. It hit the deck with a hollow thud, but Meia barely noticed. The man known as Aidan Mercer had close-cropped dark brown hair and a cross-shaped scar on his left cheek. When he walked right by her, he looked over at her. His eyes met hers, and it seemed his cold gaze softened a bit, if only for a few seconds. He then locked himself back into an impassive, emotionless mask.

Blood running down the left side of his face, Aidan looked directly at the sapphire-haired woman. Something about her reminded him of someone he used to know, but he couldn't place why. She noticed him, and there eyes met for a few brief moments before he turned and walked over to Maria. He stopped abruptly when a pair of figures came running into view. One was a young, dark-haired boy and the other was a young woman with red hair.

"Who's that?" the red-head asked.

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Gascogne couldn't find any solid information from the computer banks of this wreck of a ship. She didn't like it, because they had no idea where this ship came from or who it belonged to. She looked over to BC and shrugged.

"It's no good here either, looks the entire memory bank has been erased," she said.

BC nodded and brought her communicator up to her mouth. "Captain, the ship's data core seems to have been completely purged. We cannot find any solid data about this ship other than it's name, 'Artemis.'

"Very well, continue your search and report any findings," came back the reply.

"Roger that, Captain," BC confirmed.

Meia's voice soon came over the communications link. "Meia here, we found a couple of survivors, and one of them apparently wasn't happy to see us. He surrendered, and he says there are no more survivors. He appears to be a soldier."

"Meia, where are you?" BC asked.

"I believe we're on the main deck not too far from the bridge," came back Meia's reply.

"Stay there, we'll be up there in a minute," she said they proceeded to head over there.

"Roger."

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Once BC and Gascogne arrived there, they immediately noticed the two unfamiliar faces. BC knew that these two were the survivors Meia was talking about.

"And who are you two?" BC asked them.

The young woman with violet hair replied first. "I am Maria Shakov, daughter of the Prime Minister of Solaris Federation, the late Cedric Shakov. She gestured to Aidan "And this is Captain Aidan Mercer."

BC nodded and then glanced over at Barnette, who was helping Jura to her feet.

"Seems you like you put up a fight," BC said non-concomitantly. "There is a lot of questions I'd like to ask you, like who attacked you? Was it forces from Earth?"

Aidan let out a short laugh. "No it wasn't the Earthers that did this, it was our own people. We are in the middle of a civil war."

Before BC could ask another question, Aidan continued. "This ship was supposed to rendezvous with the rest of the fleet, but the coordinates must have been off. I was assigned as her temporary bodyguard until we met up with the rest of our forces. There, was that enough information for you?" he asked sarcastically.

"For now. Since this ship appears to be dead, I'd like to salvage anything of use off of it."

"Good idea, Captain Mercer can help," Maria replied.

"Very well," BC said as she gave them all various areas to help salvage.

"Meia, I'd like you to go with Captain Mercer and recover any weapons that are in the armory. And keep an eye on him," she added.

"Roger," Meia confirmed.

Aidan led the way, and she held her laser ring pointed in his direction, just in case he tried something.

"There's no need for that," he said, gesturing to her laser ring.

"Why should I believe you?" she replied as she followed his lead.

"Because I gave you my word that I wouldn't try anything."

They continued walking for a few more minutes until he stopped in front of an armored door that she believed led them into the armory.

"We're here," he said as started to type in the code to release the lock. The was a hiss as the door started to open, then it stopped halfway.

"Damn, it's jammed," Aidan said as he smashed the lock with an armored fist. He then grabbed hold of one of the sides of the door and began to pull.

"I could use a little help," he said through clenched teeth. Meia walked over and grabbed hold of the same side that he was holding and began to pull. Without warning, the doors abruptly opened, sending Aidan onto his back. Meia fell backwards too, and landed face first on top of him. Her face was only a few inches from his. She pulled herself up off of him, and held out her hand. He grabbed hold and she helped pull him up.

"Sorry about that," she said.

"It's nothing," he replied as he walked in to the armory.

Meia noticed that this armory had enough weapons to supply a small army. Mounted in racks were an array of assault rifles, sub-machineguns, shotguns, and various other weapons. Aidan took one of the assault rifles off of the rack.

"This is a Solaris Arms SA23 'Raptor' Assault Rifle, standard issue firearm for the Solaris Defense Force," he said as put it into one of the bags he'd laid out on the floor. She assisted him until they got as many weapons and ammunition as would fit. He slung one of the bags over his shoulder and picked up two more. She picked up a couple of the bags as well.

"We should take these to the shuttle," she said.

"Not just yet," he replied. "We have a few more places to go."

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About ten minutes later, Meia and Aidan arrived at the bridge. Aidan went by his quarters on the vessel and picked up the few personal effects he had. When they entered the bridge, a strong disgusting odor floated in the air, the stench of death. When she glanced at Aidan, he seemed not the least bit affected by the smell. He immediately put his bags down and moved towards the center and nudged one of the dead crewman aside with his foot. Reaching down, he pulled a cylindrical device up from the floor. To her, it appeared to be a computer console of some kind. He typed something into the console and a computerized voice spoke.

"_Voice Identification Required."_

"Captain Aidan Mercer, 4th Special Forces Detachment."

"_Authorization Confirmed. Security Code Required."_

"Alpha-Delta-Niner"

"_Security Code Confirmed. Self-Destruct System Activated. Vessel will self-destruct in T-minus fifteen minutes."_

"What have you done? Deactivate it now!" Meia demanded.

"I can't, only the ship's Captain or Commander can deactivate it," he replied.

"Then how could you activate it?" she asked.

"I was given the authority because of mission security, protecting Maria Shakov at all costs. It's about time we left, don't you think?"

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This is Chapter Two for you. Chapter Three will be up soon. Please read and review


	4. Chapter Three: Revelations

Disclaimer: It is Gonzo that owns Vandread, not me.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Three: Revelations**

_Location: On the Bridge of the Nirvana._

"Massive energy spike detected!" came Belvedere's alarmed shout. "It's coming from that unidentified ship!"

"What's happening!" Magno asked, fear creeping into her voice.

"The engines are overloading, and it appears they will explode, destroying the ship and everything around it." Amarone stated.

"Ezra, contact BC and the others, and tell them to get off that ship immediately," Magno ordered.

After several failed attempts, Ezra reported that magnetic interference from the energy spike is disrupting communications.

Then a massive ball of light erupted from the rear of the ship. It expanded until the entire ship was consumed by the massive amount of energy released. When the light faded, there was nothing left except for a few scraps of debris.

"Captain, the Commander reports that all of the boarding party and the survivors made it off the ship safely," Ezra reported. Magno let out a sigh of relief at the news. But, there were several questions that were unanswered. She wanted to meet these survivors, so she could get those answers.

Aidan watched from one of the shuttle's view ports as the massive ball of light that used to be the Artemis faded into the cold, black abyss that was space. He continued to blankly stare out into space until an image of a young woman with shoulder-length raven black hair and striking green eyes flashed into his mind.

"Sakura…" he whispered as he clenched his fists.

"Did you say something?" a voice said from behind him. He spun around to see a man with long, black hair.

"No… it's nothing," he replied.

"The name's Duero McFile," he said as he held out his hand.

"Aidan Mercer," he replied as he grasped Duero's hand. From he what he could tell, this Duero was a medic, as was evident by the red cross on his jacket and he was only slightly taller than himself, maybe by a few inches.

"Tell me, why did you activate the self-destruct system on the ship back there?" he asked.

_More questions? _he thought wearily. "Operational security."

"Operational security? Care to explain?"

Before he could reply, he felt a slight jolt as the shuttle docked with the large silver ship. He knew they would be disembarking in a few moments.

"I'll explain later." he said as he moved past Duero and picked up a couple of duffel bags.

A few minutes later, they disembarked from the shuttle. As they walked down the ramp, Aidan saw that pretty much the entire crew was assembled not too far from where the shuttle was sitting. It also occurred to him that almost the entire crew, except for a few, were women.

"Wow…" Maria said in amazement as she stopped at the bottom of the ramp. Aidan remained quiet as he reached the bottom of the ramp. He scanned around and he noticed an old woman was looking at him. She approached them and started to talk with the silver-haired woman. He glanced around to see the same dark-haired woman he attacked earlier glaring daggers at him. He looked back as the old woman turned to face him.

"Tell me young man, what is your name?" the old woman asked.

"Captain Aidan Mercer," he replied flatly, his cold gaze locked with hers.

"Well Captain Mercer, there are several questions I'd like to ask you, but maybe you should head to the infirmary first," she said, gesturing to the now dry blood on his face. "I'll send someone to come and get you later."

Down in the infirmary, Aidan had insisted that Duero check on Maria first, even though he had what appeared to be more serious injuries. He had just finished checking up on Maria.

"Nothing serious, now let's take a look at you," he said as he looked over to where Aidan was standing.

"Fine," he said as he punched a few buttons on his suit's left forearm. The was a barely audible hiss as the armor depressurized. He reached up and unhooked the left arm at the shoulder, and he repeated the process on the right. After the suit's arms were removed, he took off the torso armor, which had some damage. He then pulled himself out of the lower half of the suit. He was dressed only in a lightweight sensor mesh, which helped control and monitor the medpack.

"Now, let's take a look at those wounds," Duero said.

About half an hour later, after Duero finished tending to his wounds, Aidan was putting on some fresh clothes. He had on a black, sleeveless t-shirt, and a pair of gray fatigue pants. After he finished putting on his boots, he walked over to one of the duffel bags and reached in and pulled out his handgun. He checked it's twelve-round clip of ten millimeter bullets. Satisfied, he holstered the gun and pulled a few more clips out of the bag. He put the clips in one of his belt pouches, then picked up a portable computer and strapped it to left forearm. He also took a familiar disc from the bag as well.

"Well, I guess I'm ready," Aidan said.

"Good, I'll take you to the Captain then," Meia said as she walked through the door.

Barnette was leaning against the wall of the meeting room while she waited with the Captain and the others for them to arrive. She was furious that she had been defeated and almost killed by a man. Only her quick reaction had prevented her from taking a bullet to the chest. She closed her eyes, open to open them a few seconds as the door opened and four people walked in. One of them was Meia, the second was Duero, then it was that violet-haired girl, and the last one was Aidan. She could feel her anger start to rise, but she forced it back down.

"So, Aidan Mercer, as you already know I have several questions I'd like to ask you," Magno Vivan said, breaking the silence.

"I know, but before I answer any of your questions, I'd like you to answer one of mine. Who are you people?" Aidan asked.

"We're a band of pirates from Mejale, and these three men are from Tarak," she replied, gesturing to the short kid he saw onboard the Artemis, the doctor, and a bald guy he'd never seen before.

"Pirates, so I was right, you aren't with any military."

"Now, I'd like to know where you and this nice young woman are from," Magno said.

"We are from a planet called Solaris," he said as he pulled a data disc out of his pocket. "May I?"

When she nodded he inserted the disc and began typing. The holographic projector in the center of the table came to life as it projected a spherical image of the solar system they were currently in. He keyed in some coordinates and the star map was replaced by the image of a rather dull, gray-blue planet.

"This is the planet Solaris, as you can see, it isn't much to look at. There are two continents, one of which is a wasteland, the other contains the majority of the population," he pointed to it on the map.

"What I want to know is, why was your ship so heavily damaged and why did it appear in this system," BC interjected.

"The ship, which was called Artemis, was heavily damaged trying to escape from a rogue fleet. Her mission was to deliver a particular person to the remainder of our fleet, which was located at a point well hidden from the enemy. As for ending up here, I guess the coordinates were thrown off when the ship was damaged, I don't know exactly."

"And who was the person she was supposed to escort?" Magno asked.

"She's in this very room right now," he replied. "She is the daughter of the late Prime Minister Cedric Shakov of the Solaris Federation."

"Wait a minute, you said you were attacked, was it a fleet from Earth?" Hibiki blurted out.

"No, it wasn't the Earthers, but they had something to do with it."

"Then who was it?" he asked.

"It was our own people, they attacked.us," he replied. "A large group of our people believed that the right thing to do was let Earth harvest them. They were prepared to let Earth take them away, but our military resisted the attacks from them, and then one day their fleet, flagship and all, left the system for some undetermined route. They ended up blaming the government for the departure of the Earth forces, and instigated a rebellion. We are currently in the middle of a civil war."

A long moment of silence followed, clearly everyone in the room was surprised at some level at what they heard.

"Why would they do such a thing?" asked Jura.

"I don't know for sure, I'll never be able to understand those fanatics. They assassinated the Prime Minister and carried out a very well planned coup de tat. I was on board the space station the same time as him and Maria. They planned to assassinate Maria as well, but I stopped them and escorted her off the station. That is all I know for now."

"Okay, your story seems a little far-fetched, but I believe you are telling the truth," Magno said. "It seems you are stuck with us for a while, then. You can stay, provided you don't start any conflicts, I heard about your fight on board that ship."

"Of course, you have my word," Aidan replied.

Well, there's Chapter Three for you. Please Read & Review.


	5. Chapter Four: Calm

Disclaimer: I've said it before and I'll say it again, I don't own Vandread.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Four: Calm**

_Location: Men's Quarters, Nirvana_

"And this is where you'll be staying for the time being," said the young woman known as Meia, as Aidan scanned the room.

The room was very spartan, with a toilet, sink, and a fold-out metal panel that serves as a bed. When he looked over, he noticed that Meia had already gone off to do something else. He set both of the duffel bags he was carrying down onto the floor.

"Hey there," a male voice said as he turned around. The man was bald and was apparently wearing a tan military uniform. He held out his hand. "Bart Garsus."

"Aidan Mercer," he said as he shook his hand.

-

Finally rid of her spacesuit and into some fresh clothes, Maria noticed that the red-haired girl she saw earlier approaching her. She really wanted to go home, she really wanted to see her father again. But she knew that she never would, as she had seen him being gunned down by a group of soldiers. She had almost received the same fate, if not for the quick actions of Captain Mercer. Her mood suddenly got a little darker.

"Hey," the red-head said. "I'm Dita Liebely."

"Maria… Maria Shakov," she managed to reply.

"Well, Maria, I'm glad to meet you," Dita said cheerfully. "I was just going down to the cafeteria to get a bite to eat, wanna come along?" she asked.

Her mood started to lighten a little bit. It seems Dita's cheerfulness was getting through to her. Maybe home could wait, maybe she could learn to like this place.

"Sure, why not," she replied smiling.

-

"Well, BC, do you think he's telling the truth?" Magno asked as BC looked at the data on the disc Aidan had given them.

"The information appears genuine, Captain. I'd say he is telling the truth," BC replied.

"Then why didn't the rest of the fleet arrive at the same point that the Artemis did?" Magno said, naming the ship that Aidan and Maria arrived on.

"Well, he did say the coordinates were thrown off just before the ship jumped," BC said.

"Which means that the fleet they were supposed to rendezvous with is not too far away from this system.."

"If I had to make a guess, I'd say yes."

"Well, I guess it's time to inform the whole crew as to who they are and why they're here," Magno said.

-

"What's that you're eating?" Aidan asked Bart, pointing to the box he was holding.

"Oh, it's a special nutrition tablet, wanna try one?" Bart offered him.

Aidan took one of the white and red tablets and popped it into his mouth. A few seconds later, he spat it out.

"What in the hell is this crap! This stuff makes rations taste good," Aidan said as he walked out into the corridor.

"Where are you going?" Bart asked.

"I'm going to get some real food," he replied, not looking back.

-

Maria picked up her tray and followed Dita to a table. She put her tray on the table and sat down across from Dita. She picked up her spoon and scooped up some rice, and brought it up to her mouth.

"So Maria, I'd to know more about you and where you live," Dita said.

"Well, as you know, I come from a planet called Solaris," she said after she took another bite of her chicken and rice. "And I am the daughter of the former Prime Minister, which was the leader of the planet." Deciding that she wanted to no longer talk about herself, she decided that she would talk about Solaris.

"I know you saw a hologram of Solaris, but it's not as dull when you look at it from orbit," she said, taking a bite of chicken.

"Wow, I'd like to see it someday," Dita said.

-

Hibiki casually walked into the hangar. He was headed towards his Vanguard to perform some maintenance. He stopped when noticed several machines standing alongside the Vanguards. They were colored olive drab, the armor was angled, unlike a Vanguard's rounded armor. The head contained a red visor unlike the cyclops eye of the Vanguard.

He walked over to Gascogne, who was standing at the foot of the one closest to his Vanguard.

"Hey, what are these things? They don't look like Vanguards to me," he said.

"I don't know exactly what they are called, but we recovered them from that wreck of a ship," she replied, still looking up at one of them.

"They are called Strikers," a voice from behind them said. They both turned around to see Aidan standing there.

"Oh, it's you," Hibiki said.

"These are the newest addition to the Solaris Federation's military," Aidan explained. "They were originally built to combat the Earth forces, but instead arrived too late, although they did see action once the civil war erupted."

"Interesting, but none of them could ever stand up to my partner," he said with a hint of pride, pointing to the gold Vanguard sitting on the far edge of the hangar.

"Quite," Aidan replied.

"Do you know how to pilot one of them?" Gascogne said.

"I had some training on it," he replied.

"Good, then why don't you show us what a Striker can do," she said with a smirk on her face.

-

Meia walked into the empty conference room, she needed to get everything ready for the new Dread pilots that were transferring over from their main base next week. She walked over to the console and brought up a few of the basic training formations that they would be using to integrate the new recruits with the veteran pilots already on board. She continued to work for the next several minutes until the door to the room opened and Misty walked in.

"Oh, it's just you Misty," Meia said as she looked up from the console.

"What are you up to, dear sister?" Misty asked.

"I'm getting everything ready for when the new pilots come on board next week," she said as she input something into the console.

"Do you need anything?" Misty asked.

"No, but thanks for asking," she replied.

"Alright then, I'll leave you to your work," Misty said as she walked through the doors.

-

Aidan sat in the cockpit of the Striker he was going to use for the demonstration. He initiated the start-up sequence, and felt the engine come online. He checked all of the controls and made sure he strapped in. He keyed his communication system.

"This is Aidan, ready to launch," he said as he gripped the controls.

Immediately his Striker felt like it was thrown from the Nirvana by a giant hand. He stopped his Striker at a safe distance from the ship.

"This is Aidan, I'm ready to begin."

"This is Gascogne, please stand by."

The targets started to appear on his sensors, and he located and targeted the first one. He raised the long-range rifle and settled the crosshairs over the first target. He thumbed the trigger and grinned in satisfaction as the first target was shattered by the heavy armor-piercing round.

He continued dispatching the targets as they appeared one by one. Then the next set of targets were deployed. These targets could move via thrusters and had the capability to fire powered-down shots at him.

He released the rifle and pulled out the vibrosword from it's position on the left hip. The vibrosword is a hard alloy sword equipped with a small sonic generator in the hilt. The high frequency vibrations cause the blade to vibrate at high speed for improved damage over a regular sword. He immediately activated his back-mounted thrusters and accelerated towards the first target, slicing it in half. He flew in towards the next one, avoided it's fire as he took it out as well. He continued the process until all of the targets were eliminated, then went back to the Nirvana to dock his Striker.

As he got out of the cockpit, he saw Gascogne standing at the foot of the mecha. He walked over to her.

"Impressive," she said. "I think we may a use for this," she said as she looked up at the Striker again.

-

Chapter Four is finished. Just so you know, the Striker looks a lot like an Armored Shrike from Blue Gender. Please Read Review.


	6. Chapter Five: The Demons Awaken

Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread, and unfortunately, I never will.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Five: The Demons Awaken**

_Location: Men's Quarters, Nirvana_

A dull, gray mist rose from the ground like steam rising off of a boiling pot. It had been raining most of the day, and it had turned into drizzle for the last few hours. Just recently, it had stopped, and in it's place rose fog. The cold, gray haze swirled around boulders and trees, giving it an eerie look. Captain Aidan Mercer gave it no thought as he scanned the structure a few hundred meters in front of him. He replayed the briefing in his head.

_Your objective is to eliminate Dr. Geoffrey Hoskins and anybody else there. He is a known supporter of the rebel cause and we suspect he may be giving aid to the rebel soldiers. He is currently at his estate in the Blackwood Forest, here is map of it and the surrounding locale. We believe there may be armed guards in and around the location. This is a black operation, if you are caught, we will deny any knowledge of your existence._

He noticed several armed guards patrolling around the estate, and even located some on the roof. Lowering his electronic binoculars, he pulled his Longbow Sniper Rifle out of it's "drag-bag". He loaded the eight round clip and pulled the bolt back. In his prone position, he dialed the appropriate setting on his scope, and zeroed in on his first target, a guard on the roof. He settled into a steady breathing rhythm, and squeezed the trigger. The guard pitched over onto his face. Before the other one could react, he adjusted his aim and fired again. The shots were suppressed, which meant it was highly unlikely that anyone heard them.

He put the rifle into it's "drag-bag" and silently moved closer to the compound. Creeping up to the estate, he noticed a lone guard patrolling a walkway. He snuck up behind him and drew his knife. His arms snaked out, and in one slick motion, he slit his throat. He slowly lowered the guard to the ground, and wiped the blood off his knife. He sheathed it and proceeded over to the back entrance.

"Hey! You there!" an alarmed shout came from behind him. He ducked to the left and twisted as bullets screamed by where he once was. He raised his sound-suppressed submachine gun and fired at the guard. The guard dropped to the ground as an alarm sounded.

"Shit!" he cursed as he kicked open the door. He didn't care about stealth now, as he barged in and gunned down a few more guards. He made his way up the stairs and to where Dr. Hoskins office was. Shouldering through the door, he noticed his target sitting at the desk. Near him was his wife and his six-year old daughter. He pulled the trigger, only to figure out that he was out of ammo. A loud crack was heard as Aidan took a bullet in the right shoulder.

The submachine gun clattered to the ground as blood ran down his arm. The doctor had pulled a small handgun from a drawer in his desk. Before he could fire again, Aidan drew his handgun and fired. Dr. Hoskins collapsed over his desk, blood starting to soak in the wood. His wife stared in horror and his daughter started crying. Aidan walked over to them and raised his gun.

_There must be no witnesses, _he heard his commander's voice in his head. The woman hugged the child, knowing what was to come next. The child looked up at him, her eyes full of tears, clearly frightened of him, and his expression softened, if only for a moment. He aimed his gun, and fired…

-

With a choked cry, Aidan Mercer snapped awake, gasping. It gradually came to him that he was on the Nirvana, not carrying out a mission on Solaris. He wiped the sweat from his face and got out of his bed. He walked over to the sink and turned it on. He splashed cold water over his head and bare chest, washing away the sweat and fear of his dreams.

He grasped the edge of the sink and leaned forward until his head rested against the mirror. He stood there for a few more seconds, remaining silent. The had thought the dream banished, but it apparently came back. He was assigned to assassinate a known supporter of the enemy, and his commanding officer had explained that there be no witnesses of his death. When he saw the doctor's family, he knew that they were innocent, yet his commander wanted them dead. He hated him for forcing him into a position like that. His orders were to kill everyone, and he grudgingly carried them out.

_I am a soldier, not a murderer. _He lifted his head, and looked into the mirror. His steel gray eyes stared back at him as he ran a hand through his short brown hair. He turned away from the mirror and walked over to the showers.

About five minutes later, he dried himself off and put on some fresh clothes. He checked his chronometer, and it read 0344 hours. He couldn't sleep, and his muscles ached from his injuries, so he decided that would walk around for a little while. He left the men's quarters, with all of the others still asleep.

-

Elsewhere on the Nirvana, there was someone else who couldn't sleep. Meia Gisborn leaned on the railing overlooking the ship's garden, deep in thought. The dream she had about an hour ago was disturbing.

_She was running towards where she heard the screams. The power was off on the ship, and in the darkness she noticed two corpses. Then the sound of a weapon discharge got her attention, she immediately headed towards the shot, and when she looked, she saw another corpse with a pool of blood forming underneath it. She looked up to notice a woman standing over the corpse with a unfamiliar weapon in her hand. The figure looked at her, but her face was hidden from view. She attempted to fire her laser, but the figure beat her to it, she let out a gasp of pain as the shot hit her in the shoulder. The shot spun her to the left and knocked her to the floor. When she opened her eyes, the figure was over her, and she was staring the down the barrel of a gun. She tried to move, but she was pinned to the floor. Then the figure fired…_

Was it just a horrible nightmare, or was it trying to tell her something? She would like to believe that it was just a bad dream, but her instincts told her that it might not be. Her train of thought was interrupted as she saw someone walking around in the garden. She took a closer look, and saw that it was Aidan Mercer.

_Now what's he doing here so early in the morning,_ she thought to herself. He walked around for a few minutes, and then sat down on a bench. She decided that she would go see why he was up, and maybe to get to know a little more about him.

-

Aidan sat there, staring up into an endless sea of stars. In his hand, he held dog tags, but they were not his. They belonged to a woman named Sakura Nakayama. He had known her since he was twelve years old. She was killed about three years ago. His gaze went down to the tags, and his grip tightened around them.

"Captain Mercer," a voice said to him. He looked over to see Meia standing off to the side. "May I sit down?" He nodded and she took a seat right next to him.

"You don't have to be so formal, you know," he said. "Besides, I don't hold any rank here. Just call me Aidan."

"On one condition," she replied, "call me Meia."

"Deal."

"I was wondering, when did you get attacked by Earth?" Meia asked.

"It was about twelve years ago," he replied. "Our initial defenses were overrun, and it was quite some time before we could mount a solid defense. They were relentless, and soon our numbers began to decrease, it was only a matter of time before they would have reached our planet. I was on one of the transport ships at the time of their final attack. They penetrated our front lines and attacked the transports. Both of my parents died in that final attack."

"What happened to the Earth fleet?" she asked.

"I don't know why, but they stopped their attack and left the system and didn't return. Soon after, I was put into a military training facility. I've pretty much been a soldier all of my life."

After a long moment of silence, Meia stood up. "There's something I've got to do," she said, "And don't be late to the briefing later today," she said as she walked away.

"Understood," he said. He was going to be integrated into the squadron as a Striker pilot, and he learned that it was under her direct command.

-

There was a slight shudder as the shuttle docked with the Nirvana. The door opened and the ramp lowered to the ground. Rieka Kiyaga was one of several of the transferees that were boarding the Nirvana. She picked up her bag and descended down the ramp. She was one of new dread pilots that would replace the losses suffered during the Harvest War, as it was called. Once she reached the deck, the Captain moved up from the crowd that formed around the shuttle.

"I'd like to be the first to welcome you aboard the Nirvana," the Captain said. "More importantly, I'd like to welcome you to this family."

The Captain continued her speech, and Reika listened intently. She had been alone for a long time, and now she had a new home, a sense of belonging. After the Captain finished her speech, they were told they would learn their room assignments.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Jennifer said, walking up to her, her long teal hair over her shoulder.

"Yes," Reika replied, as she ran a hand through her short, black hair. What was distinct about her was that a single lock of her hair was red.

They became friends on the trip to here. They both walked over to where they would find there room assignments. Weirdly enough, they learned they were going to share a room. Due to space limitations, several of them would have to double up on rooms.

"So we'll be sharing a room," Jennifer said, looking at the list.

"It appears so," Reika said. "Looks like we're going to be bunkmates."

"I'm going to grab a bite to eat, wanna come along?" Jennifer asked.

"No, I'm going to our room to take a nap," Reika replied, yawning.

"Alright then, you can take my bag to the room," she said as she handed her bag to Reika. "Oh, and dibs on the top bunk," she said as she departed.

"See ya later," was Rieka's only reply.

Once she got to the room, she tossed her bag onto the bottom and Jennifer's onto the top bunk. She plopped down onto the bed, and before long she fell asleep.

-

Finished Chapter Five, Chapter Six coming soon!


	7. Chapter Six: Engagement

Disclaimer: You should know by now.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Six: Engagement**

_Location: Uncharted Star System, 120 Light Years from Tarak/Mejale._

"What do you think is taking them so long?" Admiral Alexander Graff asked his Second in Command.

"I don't know, sir, they probably took a lot of damage in the escape," Commander Marcus Randall replied almost immediately.

"Perhaps, but it is possible the coordinates they had were off," Graff said as he stroked his dark, well-trimmed beard.

"True, but it shouldn't have taken them this long," Randall replied.

Admiral Graff picked up his mug and took a sip of the bitter coffee. It was a soy-based substitute, as they ran out of the real thing a few days ago. He scanned the bridge of the S.D.S Dauntless, the fleet's flagship, and he noticed that all of the bridge crew were doing their assigned tasks. Still, he couldn't help but wonder where Captain Cranston and the Artemis was. His train of thought was interrupted as a startled shout came from the sensor operator.

"Sir, multiple contacts have just entered the system," she reported. "Sir, it's the rebel fleet! They found us!"

"Dammit! Battle Stations, all Striker and fighter pilots, prep for launch!" the Admiral bellowed into the intercom. All over the ship, the activity tripled. Various crewmembers stopped what they were doing and proceeded to their stations.

"Bring the main engines online, and charge the weapons," Graff ordered. The Dauntless, an Invincible Class Battle Cruiser, was one of the largest and most powerful vessels in the Solaris Defense Fleet. It's design is rather blocky, but it boasts the most weapons of any ship in the fleet. Several gun ports started to charge up as it prepared to fire it's battery of weapons.

"Aye sir," the crewman replied and went to do as he was told.

"So it has begun…" Commander Randall said.

"Aye, that it has," was Graff's only reply.

"Hey, Mr. Alien!" Dita shouted as she ran up to Hibiki, who was just walking down the corridor.

"Oh, it's you," he said as she approached him with that always cheerful look on her face.

"Well, uh, I was wondering when you could come to my room for a visit," she said as she glanced down, then back up. "You promised, remember?"

Blushing, Hibiki replied, "Well, I… um, I can't right now."

"Why not?" she asked.

"Well, uh… because I have something I need to do," he replied.

"Aww… but you always say something like that," she said, disappointment evident in her voice.

Hibiki started walking towards the men's side of the ship, and once he got there, he noticed someone in the gym. He walked over to the doorway to get a better look.

The large, leather punching bag strained against a series of blows. Aidan did not pause in his assault on the bag as he noticed Hibiki walk up to the entrance to the gym out of the corner of his eye. He hammered the bag with several punches as sweat ran down his forehead and into his eyes. He blinked away the sweat as he continued pounding the bag.

"Hey, do you need a sparring partner?" Hibiki asked. "I'm pretty good at this stuff," he said in a prideful voice.

Aidan stopped his assault on the bag and turned to face Hibiki. "Is that so?" he replied. He walked over and took a towel off its rack and wiped the sweat off his face. "Well then, put these on," he said as he tossed Hibiki some sparring gear.

"Okay," Hibiki said as he took his orange shirt off and put the padded gloves, boots and helmet on.

He followed Aidan over to the mat and they stood an equal distance apart. Aidan went into a defensive stance.

"Let's begin."

Hibiki charged forward and threw a right hook at Aidan who shifted slightly to his right and deflected his punch, and he tripped up a little bit. He quickly recovered his balance and turned to face Aidan.

"Is that all you got, kid?" Aidan taunted him.

"Don't call me 'kid'!" he spat back as he felt his anger rise. He sent several punches towards Aidan but he blocked every one of them. As Hibiki threw his last punch, Aidan grabbed his outstretched arm and swept his right leg across Hibiki's legs, leaving him sprawled out on the mat.

"This is pissing me off," Hibiki muttered under his breath.

"If your opponent has a short temper, take advantage of it," Aidan said as Hibiki got back to his feet.

This time Aidan went on the offensive, sending a series of punches that knocked Hibiki off balance, and he fell onto the mat. He got up, only to take a kick to his left arm that knocked him down again, this time almost knocking him off the mat.

"You'll pay for that!" Hibiki yelled as he charged yet again.

"You know, I used to be hot-headed like you, before I officially became a soldier," Aidan said as he dodged Hibiki's charge, and hooked his foot, tripping Hibiki, causing him to fall yet again. Hibiki got to one knee turned to face Aidan.

"You don't know anything about me," Hibiki said, his voice full of anger.

"You're right, I don't know very much about you, but I still can kick your ass," Aidan said with a smirk.

Hibiki got up and charged, but this time he went in low and tackled Aidan's legs causing him to fall to the mat. He cocked his fist and pulled it back preparing to pummel Aidan's face. But, before he could the air was knocked out him, and doubled over, holding his chest.

"You're too slow kid," Aidan said as Hibiki gasped for air.

"No hard feelings, eh?" Aidan said as he helped Hibiki to his feet. Aidan grabbed a couple of towels off their racks, and tossed one to Hibiki.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Scott Hawkins was in the middle of a pitched dogfight with fighters from the rebel fleet. He strained against the G-forces that threatened to push him into oblivion as he did an incredibly sharp turn to avoid the missiles locked onto him. His fighter was the SF-21 Lightning, a sleek, fast fighter with forward-swept wings. His flat black fighter shuddered violently as the missiles exploded next it. He noticed a rebel fighter fly into his sights, and he lined it and brought his weapons to bear.

"Gotcha," he muttered as he fired several armor-piercing rounds from each vulcan cannon mounted on either side of the fighter. Several rounds tore into the hapless fighter, as he kept on the trigger, firing until the shots managed to track up and smash through the cockpit. The fighter veered off to his left, it's pilot dead at the controls.

"Scratch one bandit," he announced into his helmet-mounted mike as he searched for another target. He found one, and attempted to lock his missiles onto the speedy fighter, but the enemy pilot seemed to be one step ahead of him, as it evaded his attempts. He finally got a lock and let loose with several missiles. The enemy fighter disintegrated as the explosion engulfed it. What he realized was the other fighter led right into the guns of an enemy warship.

"Damn," he cursed as he attempted to avoid the barrage of missiles and lasers, but it was no use. One of the lasers struck the rear of his fighter, coring through the rear of it and causing the engines to explode. He franticly grabbed the ejection handle, which would eject the entire cockpit. He pulled, but it was too late, as the fighter burned up, and him along with it.

Heading back to his quarters, Aidan casually walked down the corridor. He unconsciously rubbed his left arm, where there was a long, jagged scar that ran down from his shoulder to just above his elbow. He had gotten it in the explosion that took the life of Sakura, the only person he deeply cared about. He noticed a pair of dread pilots walking down the same corridor as him, only going the opposite way. They seemed to be talking about something amusing, as one of them was laughing.

The one on his left was a young woman with long teal hair. The other was slightly shorter, and also had really short, black hair. The one that got his attention was that a single lock of her hair was a dark red. They both stopped talking and looked over at him. He simply nodded to them as they walked by.

Although something was nagging at him, one of those women seemed familiar, the one with the short hair. Something about that woman was definitely familiar, he just couldn't place it.

_What is it? Why does she look familiar? _he asked himself, he didn't know for sure, but it started to bother him. _Maybe I should inform the Captain, or the Commander,_ he thought as he continued walking.

Well, here it is, Chapter Six, don't worry, in the next few chapters, things will start to get interesting.


	8. Chapter Seven: Suspicion

Disclaimer: Blah, blah, you already know.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Seven: Suspicion**

_Location: Conference Room, Nirvana_

"Say that again," Magno said in disbelief.

"Like I said before, I believe one of your Dread pilots may not be who she seems," Aidan repeated.

"Do you know this for a fact?" BC asked, arms crossed.

"No, I don't have proof, just a feeling," he replied.

"We have to have proof before we could act," Magno said, "Do you know her name?"

"No, but she has short, black hair, with a small lock of red hair," he said as he saw an image of her in his mind.

"Her name is Reika Kiyaga," BC said looking up from a data pad. "Does that ring any bells?"

"Reika… no it doesn't, but names aren't important," he replied, looking over at BC. "Some people change names as often as they do clothes."

"So what would you like us to do?" Magno asked.

"Just to keep an eye on her, that's all," he said as he walked out of the room, not even waiting to be dismissed.

Sitting on her bed, Reika lazily pecked at the keys of her noteputer. She was extremely bored, so bored that even running Dread combat simulations couldn't pull her out of her boredom. She continued pecking at the keys until she was interrupted by a message that popped onscreen. It indicated that she had just received a message from someone. She opened it, but it was encrypted. It took her a few minutes to decipher it, and it read, 'Proceed at your own discretion.'

"What'cha doin'?" Jennifer asked.

"Just reading a letter from a friend on Mejale," she replied, as she tapped the shut down key.

"Oh, do you wanna go grab a bite to eat?" Jennifer asked.

"Sure, why not," she said as she closed her noteputer.

Aidan flexed the arm of his Geist Powered Armor Suit, making sure it was working properly and did not jam up. The Geist was the newest development in Solaris Powered Combat Armor. The armor was thick enough to withstand most small-arms fire, and some laser-based weapons. The suit had a medical pack that injected pain-killers when the wearer sustained injury. Unlike some of the heavier powered armor, it was not fully powered, meaning the wearer had to carry some of the weight. The most important and unique feature was the optical camouflage system built into the suit. It used special electronic dampeners to mask it's IR signature as well as a special mimetic coating that redirected light to make the armor almost completely invisible.

He refused assistance from the chief engineer, a nerdy-looking woman with brown hair and glasses, to repair his battered armor. He didn't like the idea of her figuring out how his powered armor worked. She also wanted to know more about the optical camouflage, but he told her that was classified. He said he would repair it himself, and he wouldn't let anybody else touch it.

Suddenly a tall, blonde woman walked into the men's quarters and stopped in front of him. He recognized her as Jura, the woman who had attacked him with the saber onboard the Artemis.

"It looks like you're about to go into battle" she said.

"No, just making repairs and testing my armor," he said. "What do you want?" he asked as he picked up the laser rifle that was laying on his bunk next to the suit's helmet.

"Well," she said in partially seductive tone, "I'd like to make a baby, will you give me what I need?"

"What?" Aidan was caught off-guard by her bluntness, but he quickly recovered. "Do you have any idea what you're asking?"

"What does that mean?" she replied irritantly.

Aidan sighed. "I thought so," he paused for a second. "Oh, and my answer is no."

Jura fumed, and he watched her storm out of the men's quarters, nearly running into Bart as she exited.

"What was that all about?" Bart asked.

"I have no idea," Aidan replied as he practiced aiming the rifle.

Maria casually walked through the ship's garden. Recently, it was becoming a habit for her. She found the place soothing and calm. It was the one serene place on this spaceship, the one place that seemed like home. It was a stark contrast to the gray of this ship, with lush, green plants and trees, and even a stream flowing in the center of it. It was a place where somebody could think.

She plopped down on the bench, and looked up into the stars that surrounded the ship. Numerous in number, they dotted the sky and light to the darkness.

_It has already been a month since we arrived on the Nirvana,_ she wanted to go back home, but she feared there wouldn't be a place left for her when and if she did. Right now, with the rebels in control of the planet, she would be killed if she ever went back. As it stood now, she probably wouldn't mind if she ever went back. She sat there and continued to stare into the endless sea of stars.

Sitting at his computer in the infirmary, Duero looked over the disc that contained information about Solaris. It wasn't the real disc, like the Aidan had, but was a copy. Duero knew it was underhanded to copy the disc, but he wanted to know more about Solaris. More precisely, he wanted to know more about the two from there. He just finished looking at Maria Shakov's file. She was the daughter of the late Solaris Prime Minister, Cedric Shakov, who they claimed was assassinated. The file had all of her medical records, which he knew would be useful in the future. After he finished with her file, he decided to look at Aidan's file. He opened it and looked at it.

It specified that Aidan was orphaned at the end of the Earth fleet's attack on the system, twelve years ago. Not long after, he was put into a military-type school where he spent the next four years. After that, he entered boot camp, where he was trained to become a soldier. At the age of seventeen, he entered active service, just before the rise of a rebel faction that claimed to support Earth. He served in the infantry for a couple of years. Then it said that he was transferred to special forces. The rest of the information was classified. He continued to look through the remainder of the file before he was interrupted by a communication from Parfet.

"Sorry , was I interrupting something?" Parfet asked.

"No, nothing important," he replied, I was just looking up some medical files," he replied as he removed the disc and put it in his pocket. " Do you want something?"

"Yeah, I'd like your help with something, meet me down in engineering," she said.

"Sure, I'll head there now," he said as he cut the connection.

Aidan sat in the open cockpit of his Striker, performing some maintenance and some minor adjustments to the control system. The Striker was in a kneeling position, with the gantry running in front of it, just below the cockpit, which was situated in the chest. So far everything was working fine, but he had to make adjustments to the targeting system, which was off by a few degrees. He heard footsteps on the gantry and noticed someone peer into the cockpit. He noticed it was the red-haired girl named Dita.

"Oh, it's you Mr. Soldier," she said. It was a name that she gave to him. He tried to tell her not to call him that, but it failed. He reluctantly gave in, as he realized that she called very few of the men by their real names.

"Do you want something?" he asked as he looked up from computer in his lap.

"Have you seen Mr. Alien?" she asked.

"No… no I haven't seen Hibiki, but I'll let you know if I see him," he answered.

"Thanks," she said cheerfully as she left.

He glanced a the computer screen in front of him. It indicated that the sensors and camera feed in the head had a slight malfunction. He set the computer aside and climbed out of the cockpit. He grabbed the onto the handholds as he climbed up onto the shoulder. Once up there, he removed one of the access panels on the side of the head. It revealed a mess of wires and power conduits. He started to rewiring when someone climbed onto the gantry.

"Hey, Aidan, can I talk to you for a minute?" Meia asked.

"Sure, but could you give me a hand first?"

"Alright," she replied.

Meanwhile, in a seldom used engineering section, the woman known as Reika glanced around cautiously, making sure no one was around. Satisfied that no one was there, she took a small cord from a small noteputer and inserted it into a socket. She then opened the noteputer and tapped a few keys. On the notepaper's screen, it read 'Starting Upload.' A few minutes later, it was complete, she withdrew the cord and put the noteputer in a small bag. She smiled to herself, and left the engineering section, again checking for anyone around.

_It will begin very soon…_

Well, well, done with Chapter Seven, starting on Chapter Eight.


	9. Chapter Eight: Wolf in the Fold, Part On...

Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Eight: Wolf in the Fold, Part One**

_Location: Men's Quarters_

Lying on his bunk, Aidan stared blankly at the ceiling, contemplating what Meia had said to him earlier that day. She heard about Aidan's suspicions concerning a particular Dread pilot named Reika, from the Captain. She told him several weeks ago she had a dream where a faceless woman killed several of the crewmembers and almost her with a weapon Meia said she could not recognize. It was disturbing, to say the least.

_So, it is possible this Reika is from Solaris, or some other planet,_ he thought bitterly. _But why does she seem so damn familiar?_

He continued to contemplate on that until the distracting noise of someone snoring loudly reached his ears. He tried to think, but he couldn't concentrate. He looked around and saw that it was Bart. _That moron is as annoying asleep as he is awake. _He resisted the urge to pick up something and chuck it at him. He laid his head back and closed his eyes, and it wasn't long before he was asleep as well.

BC went over the footage again and again, and it wasn't pleasing. The footage was taken from a hidden camera in engineering, and it caught on tape the black and red haired Reika doing something at a computer terminal. Due to the angle of the camera, it didn't show what she was doing at that console.

_This isn't good, what is she doing there?_ BC thought.

After viewing the footage a few more times, BC came to a conclusion. She probably was stealing information about the Paksis Pragma. And possibly the data on the Vanguard and the three Dreads. Then again she could be doing something else.

"I'm going to have to inform the Captain about this," BC said and shut down the data reading unit.

Aidan stood in the conference room along with Meia, the Captain, BC and Gascogne. He stared at the footage as it was playing.

"So what do you think she is doing?" asked to anyone in general.

"She probably was stealing information on the Paksis Pragma, Nirvana, and the Vandreads," BC reported.

"Perhaps," Aidan replied, but I don't think that is what she is doing."

"Then what else do you do you think Reika is doing?" Gascogne asked.

This time it was Meia who answered. "She might have uploaded a virus or something similar."

"That's exactly what I thought," Aidan said as he paused the recording and zoomed in on the noteputer she was holding. "That noteputer says uploading, so she's not downloading anything."

"So what exactly is she uploading then?" Magno asked.

"Like Meia said before, she is probably uploading a virus of some kind into the ship's main system," Aidan said.

"So we should initiate a search through the main system to try and locate it before it takes effect," BC said.

"That's what I'd do," he replied.

"So what do we do about Reika?" Meia asked.

"I'd like to speak with the young woman," Magno said.

"Is that wise, Captain?" BC protested.

"Don't worry I'll have two security personnel escort her, and Aidan could stay here, too, as it might concern him." Magno replied.

She stood quietly over the bed where a bunch of equipment was laid out. There were several throwing knives, a few daggers and a needle pistol, as well as a few clips of ballistic polymer for it. The name Reika Kiyaga was a cover, she'd killed the real person with that name and took her place. Now she was about to carry out her mission, to assassinate Maria Shakov, daughter of the later Prime Minister of Solaris. She was going to kill her and anyone else in the way, activate a virus that would shut the ship down, and then she'd escape via Dread fighter to a small waypoint where she would be picked by a friendly vessel.

There had been a slight problem, the woman named Jennifer found out just a few minutes ago. She was silenced, her neck broken. _Time to get to work._ She removed her Dread pilot suit and put on some form-fitting leather pants, as well as a tight-fitting t-shirt. She put on a jacket that was specially made to hold concealed weapons, mainly her knives. She inserted the knives in their slots in the sleeves, and put the small dagger in it's sheath at the small of her back. She picked up the needler, and charged it.

The one she carried was made on Solaris, it was small and compact. Needlers were a particularly nasty weapon. They fired hundreds of tiny needle-like flechettes shaved from an ammo block of polymer. She inserted it into it's holster inside the jacket. She finished dressing and as she was about to make her move, she heard several knock on the door. She put on a normal face and opened the door. She saw two security guards standing in the doorway.

"Are you Reika Kiyaga?" the brown-haired one asked.

"Yes, is something wrong?" she replied.

"No, the Captain would like to speak with you," the other one with short orange-red hair said.

"The Captain, what does the Captain want with me?" she innocently asked.

"If you would come with us, please," the brown-haired one said.

"Alright," she said as she walked out into the corridor.

"This way," they pointed, and she proceeded as they took up positions behind her their laser rings pointed at her back.

_Have they caught on to me? _She casually put her hands in front of her and presses a button on what appeared to be a watch. _Change of plans._

Barnette casually walked down the corridor as she saw one of the Dread pilots being escorted by a couple of security personnel.

_Probably taking her to the Captain,_ she thought.

Her and the pilot made eye contact as they crossed paths, and Barnette got a chill when she looked into her eyes. They were cold, ice cold. She continued walking away from them. She had no idea of what was going to happen very soon.

Aidan leaned against the wall of the conference room, eyes half-closed as he waited for the guards to escort this Reika here, if that was even her real name. He just stood there, waiting until something jolted him up. He remembered the explosion that killed Sakura, no wait is was something before that. Just before the explosion, he was walking towards the barracks, and he crossed paths with a young woman in a blue and black jumpsuit. She had short black hair, with a red streak. It was then that he realized who she really was and what she was here for. She was going to kill Maria.

"Dammit!" he cursed as he bolted out the door, gun in hand, just before all power in the ship died.

Just as the power died, the two security guards were caught off guard by what just happened. Taking advantage of this, Reika did and about face and hooked her foot behind the red-headed guard's knee and tripped her. Before the brown-haired one could act, she drove a fist into her stomach. She doubled over with a gasp, as Reika drew her needler.

"Say goodbye," she said to the brown haired one as she pulled her closer and pressed the needler against her neck. She squeezed the trigger. The needle-like flechettes tore through her neck and out the back, spraying the area with blood. She collapsed, holding her throat as blood continued to spurt out.

"Damn you!" the other one said as she fired her laser ring. Reika knocked her arm to the side, throwing the shot off mark.

"I'm only doing my job," she said as she lined the needler up to her and pulled the trigger twice. The razor-like darts tore through her and she collapsed in a pool of blood.

"Now it's time to find my target," she said as she moved on.

Finished.. FYI- Every time I typed flechettes, spell check changed it to falsettos. Part Two of Wolf in the Fold up next.


	10. Chapter Nine: Wolf in the Fold, Part Two

Disclaimer: Why do I keep repeating this?

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Nine: Wolf in the Fold, Part Two**

_Location: Corridor outside Conference Room_

Immediately after Aidan drew his gun and bolted out the door, Meia had done the same. Then the power on the ship went out, leaving the corridors backlit in red. She did not know why she had followed him out until the power went off. Then she figured out that a virus caused this, and Reika was responsible. What was Reika after? Then she stopped, as Aidan was standing over a couple of bodies. When she got closer, she identified them as the two security personnel sent to escort Reika. She leaned down over them. It looked like the brown-haired one was shot in the throat. The other was slumped over, blood still pouring out of the wounds in her chest. She felt like throwing up from the strong, coppery scent of the blood around them. She looked up at Aidan, but he showed no sign of emotion at the dead crewmembers. Cold fear began to creep into her. _Is that nightmare really going to become a reality?_

"They're dead," she said as she stood up. "What is she trying to accomplish?" she asked Aidan.

"She is an assassin, which means she's after Maria Shakov," he replied, as he thumbed off the safety of his gun. "We don't have much time," he said as he advanced down the corridor.

_I'll make that bitch pay for what she did, _he silently promised himself.

_Where is she? _Reika thought as she moved down the darkened corridor, warily scanning for her target as well as any potential threat. Two security guards came running down the corridor with odd-looking laser rifles held at the ready. She quickly gunned them down with lethal sprays from her needler. One of them still tried to put up a feeble resistance, she silenced the foolish woman with a shot to the head.

"These woman from Mejale from are too soft," she muttered to herself.

A sudden crack split the air and she let out a gasp of pain as a bullet struck her in the side. She spun to the left as she regained her balance and moved for cover. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a green-haired woman aiming a pistol in her direction. She quickly inspected her wound. It appeared the bullet only grazed her, but she still was bleeding. She snapped off a couple of shots, and then dove for cover down a narrow corridor. She didn't see if her shots connected or not, nor did she care. She had to find her target and eliminate her.

_Who is that bitch anyway? _Barnette thought as she held onto her injured arm. That weapon she fired was nothing like she had seen before. Several needle-like projectiles struck her in the left arm. One thing was for sure, that was a nasty weapon she was using, and a direct hit probably would've been fatal. But she wondered where the weapon came from. She winced as another wave of pain went through her arm. She wearily leaned against the wall as blood ran down her arm and dripped onto the floor. She propped herself up against the wall's cool metal surface. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Meia and Aidan approaching her.

"Barnette! Are you alright?" a concerned Meia said.

"Ill be fine… it's just a… scratch," she managed to say, her voice unable to conceal the fact that she was in pain.

"Where did she go?" Aidan asked, obviously irritated.

"She… went down that way…" Barnette said, using her uninjured arm to point in the direction the assassin went.

"Good," he replied, and started to head off in that direction.

"Who is that person?" Barnette asked.

Aidan stopped for a second. "She's an assassin."

"An assassin? Who's she after?"

This time it was Meia who answered. "She's after Maria Shakov."

Maria sat at one of the tables in the cafeteria, her face buried in her hands, and she was shaking. This wasn't happening, she thought to herself, yet it was. A lone assassin was on her way to kill her, and lots of people were dying. She'd found out a few minutes when a couple of the security team came in and informed her. Now they were to defend her if the assassin got near her. Even though they were hear, she didn't feel all that safe. Dita was hear as well, trying to comfort her.

"It's alright, everything is okay," Dita said in a comforting tone.

"No it isn't," she shot back. "She'll kill me, and she'll probably kill you while she's at it."

"Don't say things like that," Dita replied.

"Why not, it's the truth," Maria said choking back sobs.

As Dita was about to say something, one of the guards suddenly pitched over in a spray of blood. The other guard tackled them both to the ground to avoid the shot that hit the table, shattering the edge into pieces. A young woman walked in, holding a flechette pistol in her right hand. It appeared that the security person was hit, as she was holding her shoulder.

"So this must be the famous Maria," the woman said in a mocking tone

"Yeah, so who are you and what do you want?" Maria replied from the other side of the table.

"Oh, my name isn't important, I'm just here to kill you," she said as was about to pull the trigger.

"NO!" Dita yelled as she stood in front of Maria, effectively blocking the assassin's sight of Maria.

"Move, little girl, or I'll kill you too," she warned.

"I won't let kill my friend," Dita replied.

"Suit yourself," the assassin said as her finger started to tighten on the trigger.

As he advanced towards the cafeteria, the memory of Sakura's death flashed into his mind. After walking past a supposed technician, and then noticing Sakura heading towards him. Then there was a sudden flash, and an incredible force knocked him back several meters. When he got to his feet, he noticed Sakura lying on the ground. She died not to long after. He would always remember the life fading from her green eyes.

He snapped out of it when he got several meters away from the cafeteria. He saw a dark, female form go in there. He instinctively snapped off a couple of shots, more to get her attention than to actually hit her. Her response was by diving further into the cafeteria, and out of his line of sight. He headed to the doors, but stopped and put his back the wall. Meia did the same on the other side of the door. At the same time the charged through the door, and the assassin was behind cover.

He fired again, but this time the shots hammered into the table the assassin was using as cover. The assassin fired a couple of shots in his direction. He glanced over at Dita and Maria, who were still in the room.

"What are you two doing? Get out of here now!" he commanded them.

"But…" Maria stammered.

"I said NOW!" He yelled as he continued to fire from cover, providing them with cover fire as they both ran out of the room. Meia was doing the same with her ring laser. Now that they were out of danger, he could finally avenge the death of Sakura.

"Do you have a plan?" Meia asked as he ejected the empty clip and loaded a new one.

"Hurry up," Barnette said as Duero bandaged up her arm.

"You don't rush something like this," he replied, his tone stern.

"I have to help them," she said.

"You're not going to help anyone, I have to take you to the infirmary," Duero said sternly as he finished bandaging her wounds.

She picked up her gun and got up. She felt Duero try to hold her back and she shrugged him off. "I'm going to help them whether you like it or not."

As soon as she dove she snapped off the two shots from her needler, Aidan fired some more shots, hoping to pin her down. He felt a sharp pain as some of the needle-like flechettes grazed his right cheek, creating a few gashes. As soon as she got up, he hesitated. She was holding the remaining security guard hostage, with a knife at her throat.

"Both of you, drop your weapons, or I'll open this girl's throat," she threatened.

"Alright," Meia replied as she took her ring off and dropped it onto the floor.

"Now, you," she said. "Drop it."

Aidan tossed it out and away from him.

"Thanks," the assassin replied as drew the knife across the guard's neck, sending a spray of blood from the now dying woman's throat. In one quick motion the assassin threw the same knife at Meia. Meia moved just in time to avoid the knife aimed at her chest. It instead hit her in the shoulder. She threw another knife at Aidan, but he was already on the move, his combat knife drawn, and ducking out of the way of the throw.

"I'll show you a thing or two about using a knife," Aidan said as the assassin drew a dagger from the small of her back.

Meia grunted in pain as she removed the knife from her shoulder and dropped the blood-soaked knife to the floor. She grabbed her shoulder and applied pressure in an attempt to stop the bleeding. She watched as Aidan and the assassin were in the middle of a knife fight, with neither one having the advantage. Glancing down, she noticed the gun on the floor. She reached over and picked it up. She levered it up and took aim at the assassin. She pulled the trigger and felt the pistol kick in her hand. Whether by excellent aim or dumb luck, the shot hit the assassin's hand and blew the dagger right out of her hand. Aidan attempted to take advantage of it, and struck with his razor-sharp knife. The assassin managed to kick the knife out of Aidan's hand and knock him to the floor.

"This is where it ends," the assassin said, drawing another throwing knife. She shifted her aim and fired. The ten millimeter slug shattered the assassin's left knee, causing it to buckle. The assassin started to go down as her leg collapsed on her. A few seconds later, another crack split the air as the assassin took another bullet in the back. Meia looked over to see Barnette standing in the doorway.

_This can't be happening!_ the assassin thought as her leg collapsed under her weight. This wasn't supposed to happen. It was all planned out. She would have activated the virus to immobilize the ship, find and eliminate her target, and escape in one of the Dreads to arrive at the rendezvous point where she would have been picked up by a friendly vessel. Then the other bullet slammed into her back, knocking her to the floor. She couldn't feel her legs, and her consciousness was fading rapidly.

_It wasn't happening!_

Sorry, for the long wait, I had to get some other things done first. Let me know what you think.


	11. Chapter Ten: Decision

Disclaimer: You know already.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Ten: Decision**

_Location: Conference Room_

"I knew it!" Aidan spat as he threw the needler onto the conference table. "She was from Solaris, I've used this type of weapon before. It fires several needle-like flechettes shaved from an advanced polymer block."

"So what does this mean? asked a grim-faced Magno Vivan.

"It means that the Solaris rebels know exactly where we are," Aidan replied. "After their bitch of an assassin doesn't report in, they'll probably come after us with most of their damn fleet."

"So what? I'm ready to take them on! They should be a hell of a lot easier than the Earth forces we've faced," Hibiki blurted out.

"Do you think they are that easy? They are not some automated fleet like the Earthers, they have some incredibly powerful ships as well as several squadrons of elite fighter pilots. It won't be anywhere near a cakewalk," Aidan shot back, glaring at Hibiki.

"So wha-"

"We need to come up with a plan," Meia said, interrupting Hibiki's reply.

"I agree," Aidan said, glancing over at Meia. "I have some knowledge on how they fight as well as their tactical and strategic abilities."

"So what you are saying that we are in danger of being attacked?" Magno asked.

"Isn't that already obvious? They sent an assassin, which means they know where we are. It's won't be too hard for them to just drop in on us," Aidan replied.

"It's all your fault!" Barnette accused Aidan. "We wouldn't be in this situation if it weren't for you. Several people I knew died today because you and that woman had to be on this ship. You wouldn't know what it was like to lose several of your friends"

Pushed almost to the edge by his fight with the assassin and the fact that he didn't get to kill her. He managed to restrain his anger, until Barnette caused it to snap. He approached her in a few quick steps, and drew back his right fist and punched the wall next to her. The suddenness of the outburst startled her, causing her to jump, and even startled Jura, who was next to Barnette.

"Don't even begin to think that I don't know what losing friends feels like!" he yelled at her. "And that fucking bitch you killed earlier today took someone very important to me. I wanted nothing more than to kill her for taking Sakura from me."

He lowered his fist and turned around and started to leave the room. Barnette drew her gun and aimed it at his back, and clicked the safety off.

"Go ahead, because I considered myself dead three years ago, after the death of Sakura," he said without looking back and left the room.

Barnette lowered her gun and released her grip allowing the gun to fall to the floor with a clatter.

Meia stood there, surprised of Aidan's sudden outburst. She knew he and Barnette were not on the best of terms, and this only complicated matters. It was awkward, because she actually felt kind of sorry for Aidan. She knew what is was like losing someone who was important to you. She watched as he simply walked out, and the heard the words he said.

It was then that she noticed it. On the floor, was what appeared to be a necklace at first glance. As she walked closer, she noticed it was dog tags. At first she thought they were Aidan's, but when she bent down to pick them up. On them the name read, Sakura Nakayama, she turned them over and noticed a small piece of paper tucked away in them. She pulled it out and unfolded it. It was a picture, with a younger Aidan standing in the center with arm around a young woman with shoulder-length black hair. She noticed a few more people behind them in the picture. They were all wearing urban military fatigues.

But her eyes were focused on the young woman in the picture. She was about a head smaller than Aidan, and she had deep, green eyes. _So this must have been Sakura…_

Aidan slowly walked through the ship's garden, lost in thought. His argument with Barnette opened old wounds and painful memories from the Battle of Augusta. It was a city that was ruined by constant fighting. He lost several friends and comrades in that battle, and Sakura a few days after the bloodbath. The garden he was blindly walking through reminded him of the firefight in one of the several parks in Augusta. It took him back into that battle, rattling of automatic fire, the crack of and smell of lasers, and the ever so strong smell of blood and death..

"_We need support fire, dammit!" yelled one soldier as fired several more rounds at the enemy. Several seconds later the tree that the soldier was using for cover was shattered by a grenade, filling him with shrapnel. _

"_Son of a bitch!" he heard someone yell before another explosion shook the ground. The overturned hulk of a hovercar he was using as cover was covered in dirt. _

"_I need help over here…" he another one of them yell before taking a laser bolt to the brain._

_He glanced up and over at one of the burnt out buildings, and noticed a single soldier perched in one of the windows on the fourth floor._

"_Sniper!" he yelled, as a few more ducked for cover. Another unlucky soldier lost half of his head when a searing laser bolt struck him in the head. The body fell right next to him, but he hardly noticed as he fired his assault rifle into the building window, hoping to hit the sniper._

The fighting had been like that for several days, extremely chaotic. With the amount of losses they received, the commander in charge ordered a complete withdrawal and then razed the city from orbit, turning the desolate, war-torn city to ash. He was torn from his flashback by a figure approaching from behind him.

"Do you mind if I join you," Meia asked, her voice a little sympathetic.

"No, I don't mind," he replied as she walked up next to him. He was now leaning against the railing overlooking the garden.

"I believe this belongs to you," she said as she handed him Sakura's dog tags.

"Thanks," he said weakly. "If you have this, then you must have seen the picture."

"Yes, I have," she replied, nodding.

"She was a friend… no she was more than a friend…" he said. "When I lost her, I felt I should've died that day as well. The assassin was the one that took her life among several others."

And with that, he told her how he met Sakura, their training together, the battle for Augusta, and of her death. At the very end of that, he was doing something he hadn't done since the day Sakura died, he was crying. Without another word, Meia embraced him in a hug that was meant to comfort him.

"Thanks," Aidan said.

Meanwhile, in the now almost empty conference room, the ship's Captain Magno Vivan as well as two others, were thinking about what they were going to do next.

"So what shall we do?" Magno asked her two subordinates, BC and Gascogne.

"If what Aidan says is true, then it would be best if we went on the move, to try to lose them," Gascogne suggested.

"True, but we will eventually be forced to face them, so I propose that we link up with the fleet that Aidan and Maria were supposed to rendezvous with and assist them in destroying this threat," BC countered.

"Do we even have proof that this fleet still even exists?" Gascogne asked BC.

"No, but I think it is a better alternative than to run with our tail between our legs," BC replied.

"Very well," Magno said. "We will attempt to find this fleet, and offer our assistance. They crossed the line when they sent an assassin disguised as a Dread pilot trainee. They will learn the price of dealing with pirates."

"Of course, we will need his help," BC said, referring to Aidan.

All across the Nirvana, monitors and video terminals came online with one word, LIVE. A few seconds later, the face of Magno Vivan appeared on the screen.

"Earlier today, an assassin attempted to take the life of Maria Shakov, the Prime Minister's daughter from Solaris. The assassin failed, but she took the lives of several of the crew and wounded others. This is a blatant act of war, and we will not take this lightly. We will try and locate the fleet that Maria and her bodyguard were originally supposed to rendezvous with. Once, we find them, we will assist them in destroying these fanatical soldiers who see Earth as their savior. They will no that we pirates are not ones to be trifled with. They brought it upon themselves."

The decision had been made.

Chapter Ten done. Let me know what you think. Your feedback is appreciated.


	12. Chapter Eleven: Tactics

Disclaimer: Vandread belongs to Gonzo. All music copyright to their original owners.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Eleven: Tactics**

_Location: Gym, Men's Section of the Nirvana._

(BGM: Releasing the Demons- Godsmack)

Aidan hammered the bag with another heavy blow, not letting up in the least. Blow after blow, the bag was pounded mercilessly. He worked out in the gym, only really to help get the recent events out of his head. The last few days had been hell, with the resurgence of all of his painful memories resurfacing to haunt him once again. Sweat ran down his forehead and into his eyes, and he paused only for an instant to wipe the sweat from his face.

The sound of the explosion, the force of another explosion knocking him off his feet, the intense pain through his left arm, watching Sakura die in his hands, that was the most painful memory that resurfaced. _All because of that damn bitch, _he thought angrily. He slammed the bag with a vicious round kick, then immediately turned and slammed his fist against the wall. He ignored the pain that lanced through his arm from hitting the wall with such force.

"Dammit!" he cursed, and a second later a beeping sound filled his ears. He reached into his pocket and picked out his wrist communicator. He activated it.

"Aidan here," he said into the communicator.

"We need you down in the tactical briefing room," BC ordered him.

"I'm on my way," he replied. He shut off the communicator and grabbed a towel off the rack next to him, and headed for the showers.

Sitting alone in the dark, Maria brooded over the what happened only a couple of days ago. She sat on her bed ,her face buried in her hands. She thought it was her fault, all _her _fault. If it weren't for her, several of the people that died would still be alive. She wished the assassin would have killed her, so she wouldn't have to deal with this. She was knocked out of her despair buy a knock at her door. She managed to compose herself and ask.

"Who is it?" she asked weakly.

"It's me, Dita," came the reply. "May I come in?"

"If you don't mind, I'd like to be left alone," Maria said softly.

"But…" Dita said.

"I said I want to be alone! Now go away!" she yelled, as soon as she was confident Dita had left, she resumed her sulking.

Hibiki sat in the cockpit of his Vanguard, his _partner. _He was making adjustments so he and his partner would be ready for the upcoming combat. He would be ready for anything, although he never directly faced a human in space combat. He checked over every system, making sure he didn't miss a thing. He would be ready.

_These people gave up their humanity when they sided with Earth,_ he thought bitterly.

Making adjustments to the tactical simulation again and again began to bore Meia. She had been working on it for the last two hours, using the data that Aidan had provided. The data included the enemies' battle strategies, tactics, and stats on the various vessels and fighters in use by them. It would all become useful when they encountered their enemy on the field of battle.

She rubbed her eyes, and glanced at her chronometer. It was well past midnight, and almost everyone else was asleep at this time. She went back to staring at the screen, trying to figure out how to improve it further. Aidan walked up to her, and handed her a cup of hot tea.

"Thanks," she said as she accepted the mug and took a sip of the warm liquid.

"Thought you could use it," he said as he turned to look at the monitor.

"I still need to work out a few bugs," she admitted.

"Still, it looks like a sound strategy to me," he replied. "I used to have to come up with plans for an operation, but that was only when I commanded a squad of special ops soldiers, nothing near this scale."

"Special ops?" she asked, showing a little interest.

"Yeah, although I did a few missions solo, although it did not like some of the missions I was assigned. I did several things that I didn't want to do," he said, looking at the monitor again.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…" she apologized.

"Sorry about what?" he asked as his eyes met hers. "There's no need to be, it's all in the past anyways."

For a long few minutes an awkward silence dragged on. Without realizing it, they were both staring at each other. At about the same time they realized it, and both of them looked away, blushing.

"Well, I'll leave to let you finish up here," Aidan said after another long minute and walked out of the room.

Meia stood there for a long moment, puzzled of this feeling she was having. Was she feeling an attraction toward him? Was it even possible? She contemplated on those questions in the darkened room.

_What is it about her that reminds me of Sakura?_ he thought as walked down the corridor. It had bugged him since he first met her, and he had yet to figure out. Was it her looks? Her personality? Sure, Meia had a attractive body, he admitted that much, but that wasn't it. It's not her hair, Sakura's was longer and was black, a stark contrast to Meia's sapphire blue. As he stopped in front of the door that would lead him to the men's quarters, it hit him. It was her eyes! She had the same striking green eyes as Sakura.

Sitting in his Captain's Chair, Captain Gunter Argust tapped his finger on the arm of his chair. He was in command of a task force sent to hunt down the heretic vessel known as the Artemis, which carried the heretic's leader's daughter. He was the Captain of the battle cruiser known as the Indomitable, as well as six other vessels, three destroyers, two frigates and a patrol ship. Last he had known, the ship went off course and was rumored to be somewhere in this system.

"Report any contacts," he ordered the sensor technician.

"Negative, there are no contacts yet, sir." the tech replied.

"Damn," Gunter mumbled, as he started tapping the arm of the chair again.

The silence dragged on for the next thirty minutes, only interrupted by the beeps and sounds from the computer terminals. The sensor tech cried out.

"Contact, we have unknown warship one thousand kilometers in front of us."

"Is it the Artemis?" he queried.

"Negative, sir."

"Magnify, the image," he ordered and the crewman zoomed in the image. It was the image of a large, sleek and elegant silver warship. He stared at it for a moment, then he realized what it was. It was the infamous ship that had a hand in defeating the Earth forces all across the galaxy. It was the Nirvana, if he could remember right.

"Battle stations, general quarters," he barked, and then moved to a series of other commands. "Charge the laser batteries, load the missile tubes, and notify the rest of the fleet, we are engaging."

"Unidentified fleet located dead ahead!" Bel's alarmed shout rang across the bridge. "They appear to be preparing for combat, it looks like they mean to engage."

"How many?" BC asked.

"I count at least seven ships, and what appears to about a hundred fighter craft," Amarone stated.

"Damnit," BC muttered. "Meia, mobilize the Dread Teams on the double!"

"Roger," Meia responded from the other side of the connection.

_It had begun._


	13. Chapter Twelve: Chaos

Disclaimer: Vandread is awesome, therefore I don't own it.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Twelve: Chaos**

_Location:_ _Cockpit, Aidan's Striker_

Aidan brought his Striker from a kneeling to a standing position in one deft move. He checked his controls one last time. The targeting system, weapons panel, sensors, read all green. He walked his Striker towards the hatch, and launched as soon as it opened. It had been a while since he fought these fanatics, so he was looking forward to it.

It was time for a little payback.

Feeling as though she were shoved by a giant's hand, Meia launched in her Dread. She made sure all of the pilots knew what they were supposed to do. She took up a position next to Hibiki and Dita, which had just combined.

"Alright, we are to engage to destroy, we are using the new formation, now let's go give them hell!" she said as she smiled to herself. Apparently she was starting to become more like Hibiki, she was even starting to talk like him.

The reply was chorus of 'Rogers,' a hell yeah from Hibiki, and a simple affirmative from Aidan. A second later everyone leapt into action, ready to make them pay for the cowardly assassination attempt.

Gripping his fighter's controls, Xander Sharr grinned as the enemy fighters started to advance. It had been a while since his last battle, and he was ready to destroy these heretics that stopped the Earth's Harvest. He considered it an honor that he'd one of the soldiers to remove this blight upon the universe. He, along with many other pilots, leapt into action as well. The battle was joined.

Captain Gunter Argust stared into the view screen, watching the battle unfold. It was really looking to be a brutal battle, with neither side wanting to give in. It was hard to tell if the explosions were from one of his fighters, or the enemies'. Then he noticed something that caught his interest, a large blue mecha that seemed to be tearing away at his forces. Could it be one of those weapons that combine? If so, that meant trouble. But not for long, as he had an ace up his sleeve.

"Prepare to charge the device," he ordered one of his crewmen.

"Meia, on your left!" Jura shouted as a fighter attempted to intercept the Dread Team Leader.

Meia reflexively dodged the incoming shots, with a few connecting with her shields. As the fighter passed, she lined up and locked on, several missiles leapt from there tubes and streaked out towards the enemy fighter. It tried to dodge, but several of the missiles hit engulfing it in a fireball for a split second.

"Team Leaders, tighten up your formations, don't make it easy for them to hit you," she advised.

Aidan took aim while moving out of the firing arc of the enemy fighter, he unloaded with several rounds from his automatic rifle, stitching a jagged line in the fighter's armor. He immediately thrusted downward as enemy fighter flew over him, missing him by a only a few meters.

"Damn," he muttered. These pilots were crazier than he thought. Out of the corner of his eye he saw two destroyers move forward, intent on engaging the Nirvana. Turning to get a better view, he saw them open up with several laser volleys that pounded the shields of the silver ship. There green blasts searing through space. He turned his attention back to the battle as his lock-on warning alarm blared for attention.

With a feral grin of satisfaction, Xander watched as his fighter's lasers tore into the crippled fighter, destroying it. He actively searched for another target, there was one. He noticed a fighter that apparently was drifting, probably from damage. He scanned it, and found out that the pilot was still alive.

_But not for long._ He toggled his lasers and centered his targeting reticule on the cockpit. The two bursts of laser fire tore into the cockpit, and the oxygen venting out crystallized. There was no doubt that the pilot was dead.

There! A silver blur darted past him. That fighter was faster than any he had faced so far. Now there was a worthy opponent. He turned to pursue his new prey.

The battle cruiser Indomitable, which had kept out of the primary battle, stood motionless. Captain Argust tapped his finger on the arm of his chair. He was starting to get impatient.

"Is the device ready yet?" he asked the crewman.

"Almost, sir,"

"As soon as it's ready, activate it," he commanded.

Hibiki, along with Dita, tore into one of the frigates with their beam cannons. The gaping hole in the side of the vessel was leaking air like blood from an open wound as several bodies flew out into the cold depths of space.

They moved to where they saw the massive battle cruiser, and pondered for a seconds as to why it wasn't moving.

"If that's the enemies' flagship, then why are they not fighting?" Dita asked.

"I don't know, but let's go wake them up," Hibiki said as he and Dita charged towards the massive vessel.

Although the battle cruiser was motionless, it was in no way out of the fight. A massive ball of electricity rapidly expanded from the it, engulfing all nearby vessels, but apparently not causing them any harm. When it connected to the Vandread, surges of electricity went throughout it's systems. Like to two polar opposites of a magnet, Vandread Dita split. Sending either one of them spinning out of control.

"What the hell was that!" Hibiki wondered.

As Bart was locking onto multiple targets in order to even the odds. The ball of expanding electrical energy engulfed the Nirvana. Just as he finished locking on, the targeting system went dead.

"What the hell just happened?" BC asked.

"I don't know, Commander, just as I was about to fire, the targeting system just shut off.

"Commander, the we've lost the shields!" Amarone's excited statement rang throughout the bridge.

"How?" BC asked.

"When that ball of energy connected with the ship, it shorted out several of the systems. It appears to not have affected any of the ships other than Vandread Dita," Belvedere stated.

"This is bad, we have to pull back," Magno said.

Just then several anti-ship missiles were fired from the nearest destroyer, and when they collided with the Nirvana, tore through the now unprotected hull, breaching it and causing severe damage to the starboard arm of the ship.

"All Dreads pull back, we are retreating from battle," BC commanded as the ship took more laser hits, coring into the ship's armor.

This wasn't happening! Meia's Dread started to become sluggish after getting by that electrical field. It made her an easy target for an enemy to pick off, if they decided to press their advantage. And that fighter that was pursuing her for the last several minutes would surely attempt to finish her off.

Xander saw that the fighter he was pursuing slow down. He was going to head in for the kill. As he forced is fighter into over thrust, pushing to close. He heard the sweet tone of a target lock as he tightened his fingers on the triggers. Before he could fire or even slow down, a lone Striker appeared in front of him, vibrosword angled towards him. With a sickening crunch, the canopy crushed inward as the blade went through the cockpit, cutting him in half. The dead fighter collided with the lower half of the Striker.

Aidan was violently thrown around his cockpit, the safety harness straps digging into his shoulders. The impact of the fighter literally tore the bottom half of the Striker off, and something inside the cockpit exploded. Aidan felt a biting pain as shrapnel tore into right half of his body. He also felt some ribs crunch as he slammed against his cockpit's arms. Sparks shot through his cockpit as his consciousness started to rapidly fade away. His vision started to dim, and he felt death's cold embrace as his life flashed before him. Not long after, he lost consciousness as the remainder of his Striker spun out of control.

"Captain, they appear to be withdrawing," the helmsman informed him. "Shall we pursue?"

After thinking about it for a moment, Captain made his decision.

"No, they are no longer a threat to us."

Chapter Twelve finished. Please Read & Review.


	14. Chapter Thirteen: Memories, Part One

Disclaimer: Gonzo owns Vandread. All music copyright to their original owners.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Thirteen: Memories, Part One**

_Location: Infirmary, Nirvana_

"Surface wound on the head, several lacerations along the right side of his body, and at least three broken ribs, and it appears he's lost a lot of blood as well," Duero stated as he examined Aidan. "We're going to have to stabilize his condition, immediately."

Meia stood outside the room that Duero was operating on Aidan. She was worried a little bit on his condition, as Duero said it wasn't good. That was reckless of him, she thought. He dove in at the last second to stop that fighter from attempting to finish her disabled Dread. That move looks like it might cost him his life, as his mecha struck by a fighter at full thrust was not something someone voluntarily did. She winced, she saw what was left of his Striker, there no lower half to speak of, the right arm was also gone, and the shattered cockpit was stained with a good deal of his blood. Apparently she owed him, and she hoped that he'd lived, because she hated owing people. Although that wasn't the only reason she wanted him to live through this…

Drifting on the edge of unconsciousness, Aidan could not feel anything. He fought to stay awake, but the pull of the drugs he'd been given, as well as the fact that he'd been fading in and out of consciousness begged to differ. It wasn't long before he was completely out, and the resurfacing of old and painful memories emerged…

Age: 10

A young Aidan sat cowered in his mother's arms, scared of the alarmed shouts all around him. His father was next to him, trying to comfort him. The transport ship shuddered violently, taking several hits from the attacking Earth forces. The Earth forces had penetrated the front-line, and now were attacking the various transport ships at the rear. Aidan saw a warship collapse in on itself as it was shattered by heavy fire.

Then the ship he was on took another violent hit, and there was a sickening screech, as an entire section of the room they were in basically was torn away and air was rapidly sucked out into the vacuum. He felt his ears pop, and he reached for something to grab onto as everything was being sucked out the ship. Aidan watched in horror as his parents were thrown out of the ship like rag dolls, and he tried to reach for them but was held back by a pair of strong arms, which pulled back behind as an air lock slammed shut. Through tear-filled eyes, Aidan looked up to see it was one of the soldiers that saved him from his parents' fate.

Age: 12

Located almost in the middle of nowhere significant, the military training base stood out like an eyesore. The base consisted of several structures, mostly nothing more than gray rectangular buildings that were built to withstand damage from heavy windstorms, some exceeding speeds of two hundred kilometers an hour. There were three primary structures, the barracks, which housed the trainees and recruits, the vehicle hangar, where the jeeps and armored personnel carriers were held. The final important structure was the training facility itself, which consisted of all the necessities that were needed to train it's recruits. Outside there was an expansive area which consisted of obstacle courses, firing ranges and a recreation area.

Aidan walked out of the briefing room, where the commander of the base officially welcomed the newest batch of recruits, no draftees. There wasn't much say in for most of them, which were around Aidan's age. It had been two years since his parents perished in the final Earth attack. For some odd, unknown reason, the Earth forces withdrew, leaving the Solaris system. It puzzled many, but they were grateful that Earth decided to leave. He had mostly gotten over the death of his parents. He was given a choice, join the military, or spend the rest of his young life at the orphanage.

He had no desire to spend the rest of his childhood in some rundown orphanage, and if he joined the military, he would at least being doing something productive. Besides, it was not like it mattered, because he had no home anyway. The decision was also influenced by the fact that he could take his vengeance out on Earth for the death of his parents, if Earth ever decided to return. He was jolted back to reality when he accidentally collided with someone.

"Oh, I'm sorry," a young girl said. She had raven black hair that went halfway down her back.

"No, it was my fault, I wasn't watching where I was going," he said sheepishly. "Oh, my name is Aidan," he said, extending his hand.

"Sakura," she said as she shook his hand. "Nice to meet you."

Age: 16

"Hey, Aidan!" Sakura, who now cut her hair to just above her shoulders, called over to Aidan, who was in the middle of target practice. Aidan and Sakura had become good friends over these last four years.

Having just finished emptying the handgun's magazine into the target dummy, Aidan laid the now empty handgun down and turned to face her. "Hey, Sakura, what are you up to?" he replied.

"Guess what?" she asked.

"What?" was his only reply.

"Come on, guess," she insisted.

"Okay, I give up. What do you want tell me?"

"I passed the test to apply to become a Striker pilot," she finally said.

"Good for you," he said, genuinely impressed, as it wasn't easy to become a pilot of one those combat mecha. "I couldn't bring myself to pilot one of those things."

"Why not?" she asked.

"Too complicated, I'll just stick with the infantry," he answered.

"I have duties to attend to," he said. "Good luck piloting one of those things, and I'll see you later," he said as he departed.

Age: 17

"Are you ready?" Aidan asked as he went into a defensive stance. He had on a simple tank top, a baggy pair of gym pants, and a pair of padded gloves.

"As I'll ever be," Sakura replied as she mimicked Aidan's stance. She was dressed similarly.

They both stood an equal distance apart on the sparring mat. With quickness and fluidity, Sakura lunged forward, putting Aidan almost immediately on the defensive. She landed a series of blows that he mostly blocked, and he countered with a punch that threw her off-balance. Taking advantage of this, he hooked his right foot around her ankle and pulled towards him. She fell onto her back, and he leapt forward and pinned her to the mat with his strength.

"Do you give in?" he asked, holding her to the mat.

Her reply was in the form of a knee to his stomach, he instinctively released his grip, and in a split second she was on top of him, holding him to the mat. Her chest was pressed against his, and he could feel her body heat as she stared down at him.

"The real question is, do you give in?" she asked, a grin on her face.

He grinned, and tapped his left hand on the mat a few times to signal his defeat. She got up off of him, and offered a hand to help him up. He accepted and she pulled him to his feet.

Age: 18

"Up, up, up!" The Sergeant ordered.

The lights snapped on, and Aidan immediately got up, he didn't sleep all that well anyways. The barracks was filled with noise of barking orders and clamoring alarm. He rolled out of his bunk and got to his feet.

"Move it, people!" the Sergeant shouted. The barracks began to fill with sounds of lockers banging open and shut. Aidan pulled his uniform from it's locker and put it on. He doubted this was a normal inspection, they were heading into battle. He slammed his locker shut and joined the rest of the soldiers, who were heading down the passageway that lead to the armory. Once he got into the armory, he came up to the armorer.

"Mercer, Aidan. Eight-four-zero-five-three," he said

"Here's your weapon, Mercer," the armorer said. "Draw your spares and your armor, down the passage. Aidan proceeded down the passage, grabbed the spare magazines for his assault rifle. He also donned his armor, which consisted of a flak vest, shoulder, elbow, and knee pads, as well as his helmet.

With steadiness, Aidan and the rest of the soldiers moved to the armored personnel carriers that awaited them. He climbed into the nearest seat that wasn't taken. After all twelve soldiers were in the armored hovercraft, it sped off for a destination Aidan didn't know of.

"Where do you think we're heading?" Derek, one of the soldiers with Aidan, asked from next to him.

"I know as much as you," Aidan replied as the hover APC took a sharp turn.

Several of the APCs sped down a road in the city of Augusta. Just then, a stream of fire came out of one of the buildings, the slugs catching the skirt of the APC, the APC leaned downward, and the front slammed into the concrete, the APC kept rolling until it slammed into one the buildings, engulfing it and the front of the building in a large fireball. The other APCs slowed down and disgorged their cargo of soldiers.

After disembarking from the APC, Aidan and several of the men with him headed for the cover of the nearest building. One of the them wasn't so lucky though, the weapon that took out the APC earlier tracked into him, cutting him half. The battle had been like that for the last few weeks.

"We need support fire, dammit!" yelled one soldier as he fired several more rounds at the enemy. Several seconds later the tree that the soldier was using for cover was shattered by a grenade, filling him with shrapnel.

"Son of a bitch!" he heard someone yell before another explosion shook the ground. The overturned hulk of a hovercar he was using as cover was covered in dirt.

"I need help over here…" he another one of them yell before taking a laser bolt to the brain.

He glanced up and over at one of the burnt out buildings, and noticed a single soldier perched in one of the windows on the fourth floor.

"Sniper!" he yelled, as a few more ducked for cover. Another unlucky soldier lost half of his head when a searing laser bolt struck him in the head. The body fell right next to him, but he hardly noticed as he fired his assault rifle into the building window, hoping to hit the sniper. He didn't hit the sniper. A second laser bolt, this one aimed at him, barely missed, leaving a burn mark on his helmet. He keyed his communicator.

"Striker Two! We need fire support, sniper on fourth floor of the third building over.

"Roger," came a familiar voice from the other side. A gray and black Striker unloaded several rounds into the corresponding building, and effectively taking care of the sniper with high-caliber rifle fire. No fire came out of the building after the smoke cleared.

The Striker turned and advanced down the street at a full run towards the embattled troops. He knew the pilot of that particular Striker was Sakura. He noticed two people bolt out of the shelter of one of the buildings, closing with the Striker, before he could react, one of the soldiers planted a satchel charge on the leg of the Striker, and jumped down off of it. Aidan caught him with a burst of rifle-fire right when he hit the ground. Five seconds later the charge went off, mangling the leg of the several meter tall Striker. It slammed into a building and landed on it's back.

Careless for his own safety, he bolted out from his cover and headed over the downed mecha. The other soldier started to plant a satchel charge on the cockpit hatch. Aidan dispatched of him before he could arm it. The dead body fell off the Striker with a barely audible thud. He climbed onto the battle-scarred mecha. He forced the hatch open, and looked into the cockpit.

"Are you alright?" he asked her, extending his hand.

"Fine, just a little dazed," she replied as she took his hand. He pulled her out of the cockpit, and she drew her handgun from it's holster at the small of her back.

"Let's get moving," he said as he jumped off the wreck and onto the ground.

A small squad of soldiers searched a building for potential hostiles, and Aidan and Sakura were among them. They were about to clear a room, and one soldier was about to kick in the door. Just as he tried, the door seemed to explode as several bullets blasted through it, sending the soldier back onto his back. The other soldiers kicked through the remains of the door and gunned down the man on the other side of the door.

The soldiers quickly swept through the room, along with Aidan and Sakura. What they saw in the room surprised them. Huddled in the corner, were several children. Sakura approached them, lowering her weapon. The children stared up at the soldiers with defiance. She attempted to talk to them, to try to get them to warm up to her. Out of the corner of his eye, Aidan saw a flicker of movement out the window.

"Get down!" he yelled as he grabbed Sakura and yanked her down. Several seconds later an explosion shook the building, and their room specifically. When Aidan looked up, he saw a few of the soldiers were on the ground, most likely dead. When they looked over to where the children were, he noticed they weren't there. The section of the room where they were hiding was gone, completely obliterated.

Several months had passed since the start of the battle, with no end in sight. There were a massive amount of casualties on both sides. Aidan was one of the few survivors of his unit. Leaning against a grounded APC, Aidan looked over to Sakura, who was sitting on top of the carrier.

"Those children…" she trailed off.

"There was nothing you could have done," Aidan said.

"I know, but-" her reply was cut off by the sky turning a crimson red over the city, which they were no longer in. They watched as several spears of light came down as if some angry god unleashed his wrath upon the city. In a few seconds, two-thirds of city of Augusta lay in rubble and ash.

Age: 19

(BGM: Serenity- Godsmack)

After washing up, Aidan heard a knock on his door, he hooked the towel over his arms and walked over to the door and it slid open to reveal Sakura standing there.

"May I come in?" she asked.

"Sure," he said and shifted position to allow her to enter.

"I need to tell you something," she said hesitantly as she sat down on the bunk. He sat down next to her.

"Go ahead," he said, even though he had a gut feeling it wasn't something good.

"Well, I'm being transferred," she said.

"That's it?" he said. "That isn't so bad."

"You don't understand, I'm being transferred to the space division." she said. " I'll be leaving tomorrow. We may never see another again after tomorrow."

The reality struck Aidan like a sledgehammer. He knew that he'd be transferred, but probably to another infantry unit. He came to the conclusion that he could not be without Sakura. She took his hand and held it. They looked into each other's eyes. Aidan noticed that in her green eyes that she wanted something. They kissed, and he gently pushed her down onto the bed.

Aidan walked down towards the barracks, intent on telling her goodbye one last time. He casually walked past a tech. She was a woman, with black hair almost as short as his, although it had one distinguishing feature. There was a red streak running through it. He nodded and proceeded on. Noticing Sakura, he started to jog towards her. Suddenly the barracks exploded, throwing Sakura to the ground. He immediately ran to her fallen form, but before he could get there, the force of a second explosion threw him off his feet. Suddenly a sharp pain shot through his left arm, looking over, something had slashed his arm open. He was bleeding badly.

Forcing himself up, he staggered over to Sakura. She was lying face down in the dirt. Using his remaining strength, he turned her over and found that she was still alive, though barely. She was bleeding badly as well. He held her, ignoring the pain that lanced through his arm. She lifted her hand and stroked his cheek, and said something, but no sound came out. The life in her eyes slowly faded away.

"Sakura, stay with me! Come on!" he said to her lifeless body. He felt tears falling down his cheeks, but before long he fell unconscious from loss of blood.

Still more to come. Read & Review.


	15. Chapter Fourteen: Memories, Part Two

Disclaimer: Vandread belongs to Gonzo. All music copyright to their original owners.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Fourteen: Memories, Part Two**

_Location: Infirmary, Nirvana_

Still unconscious, Aidan seemed to struggle against a pain that racked him. It was not a physical pain, although he had plenty of that, it was something else. Emotional.

Age: 19

(BGM: Darkness-Disturbed)

Aidan stood at attention in full blue and black dress uniform. Along with all the other soldiers, they were here to honor the dead that were killed in a cowardly terrorist attack. He stared blankly as they lowered the caskets of many of the soldiers that died a few days ago. His eyes were focused on one of them, the one that contained Sakura's body. He promised himself that whoever did this would die a slow, horrible death.

The silence was shattered by several rifles firing in unison, and a man giving the orders to fire. After the rifle salute was finished, the assemble soldiers, as one, snapped a sharp salute. Yes, whoever did this would pay.

Age: 20

"Sir, I request to be transferred to special operations," Aidan asked his superior officer as he stood at ease.

"Is this because you would like to take revenge for the deaths of many in your unit?" the Colonel asked.

"No, sir, I'd just like to put my skills to a better use to serve the Federation," he said.

After a painfully long silence, the Colonel finally came to a decision. "Since most of your unit was killed in that terrorist incident, I formally accept your request for transfer."

"Thank you, sir," Aidan said.

"Don't get too eager, the tests for special ops can be difficult," the Colonel countered.

"I know sir," was all Aidan said.

"This is your final test, Mercer," the instructor said. "You objective will be to kill or subdue all eight of the filthy criminals that we set loose in the dome." Inside the dome was an artificial jungle, ideal for ambushes and sneak attacks. "You will be inserted without any weapons, although the criminals were given weapons. They were told that if they killed you, they would be set free."

Aidan scoffed at that idea, because even if they did manage to kill him, like they actually could, they'd probably just be executed afterwards. He was ready, and he had no qualms against killing them, for they were just filthy murderers and rapists.

Sitting in his pre-selected hide, Aidan watched as they split into four groups, and one of them was nearing his position. They both were armed with a pistol, from what he could tell. After the second one passed, he snaked his arms out and grabbed the him. With a quick motion, he snapped his neck. The other one turned around, and fired. The shot hit the man he was using as a shield. Aidan grabbed the other's gun and shot him. The guy fell to the ground, a smoking hole in his chest. He grabbed a knife one of them had on them as well as both of their guns. He moved quickly out of the area, knowing that others would have heard the shots.

With patience and efficiency, Aidan dispatched four more. That left two of them, and they both decided to split up. _Bad idea._ Aidan crept behind one of them and opened his throat with a knife. The other proved a little more difficult, he seemed to be a little smarter than the others. When Aidan ambushed him, he proved he knew how to fight. They were locked in a hand-to-hand fight, with neither if them getting the better of each other, until the final convict knocked Aidan down. He made a grab for the gun that was on the ground as Aidan got to his feet. After he picked up the gun, he aimed it in where he thought Aidan was. Aidan managed to get to the side of him. He grabbed the convict's gun arm and wrenched it back. Aidan heard a satisfying crack, which meant he bent that guy's elbow the wrong way. The man released his grip on the gun, and it fell away from them. Aidan brought his down and kneed him in the stomach. The convict doubled over in pain. Aidan picked up the gun, walked over to the convict, put it to his head, and pulled the trigger.

"Very well done," the instructor said as he walked up to Aidan, "Welcome to the Solaris Special Forces."

Age: 21

Aidan didn't like his commanding officer, he didn't like from the first day they met, and things were made worse when Aidan had been assigned to eliminate the doctor known as Geoffrey Hoskins. He and his superior officer had gotten into a heated argument about the execution of the late doctor's wife and child. The man didn't even look like a soldier. He had pretty big size gut, and his blunt, ugly face sickened Aidan, as well as his balding head. This ass looked more like a politician than a soldier.

"You are out of line, Captain!" the commander shouted.

"For damn good reason! The doctor's family didn't have to die! It was a mother and child," Aidan countered.

"If you keep this up, I'll have you demoted," the commander warned, his face red.

"Like I give a damn, sir," he mocked.

"If you don't stop this, I'll have you court-martialed!" the commander yelled. "Besides, they were filth just like the doctor."

That last comment got to Aidan, he balled his right fist and slammed it into his commander's face. He was positive that he heard his jaw break, and several teeth came loose. He definitely wasn't a soldier. The commander collapsed to the ground. Aidan stepped over him and walked to the door.

"You had that coming, you bastard," was Aidan's parting shot as he walked out of the office.

(BGM: Sick of Life- Godsmack)

Aidan stood there with his arms tied to a rope that hung from the ceiling. He lacked a shirt, as he was in the middle of "disciplinary action" for insubordination and striking a commanding officer. The lash struck his back again, and winced in pain.

"This is what you get for striking me!" the commander said as he struck his back again with the whip. Aidan winced in pain as he struck again and again, drawing blood each time the lash contacted his skin.

"Do you give in? If you do and you will have to get on your knees and beg forgiveness," he said with a nasty grin.

"Like hell I will, you bastard," Aidan said in defiance. If there was one thing, he would not give in to this sadistic, poor excuse for a soldier, no, poor excuse for a human being.

"How dare you!" he said as he struck Aidan in the face. Aidan responded by spitting blood on the man's face and smiling a mocking grin.

With that, the poor excuse for a man drew a knife and put it close to Aidan's face. The man drew two cuts on Aidan's left cheek in the shape of a cross. Blood from the cuts trickled down his chin and onto the floor.

"Let this be a reminder that this is what happens when you defy me," the ugly bastard said.

Aidan stared at him with contempt. He hated this man, in fact he was the second person that Aidan hated with such intensity. The person that reserved the honor of most of his hatred was whoever was responsible for Sakura's death. If it weren't for these damn restraints, he'd go and break that goddamned bastard's neck like the twig it was. He would not give in. He would not!

There was something wrong, definitely wrong. Appearing to be fine a minute ago, Aidan's condition was now starting to take a turn for the worse. Meia started to worry, for the pain which had went away for a awhile seemed to have come back full force. It appeared to increase in intensity until Aidan let out a cry of pain. From what it looked like, his life was starting fade away.

"Don't give up, stay alive," she softly whispered.

"Aidan, wake up."

Aidan woke up, and it appeared to him that he was looking up into a clear, blue sky. He was lying on his back, and he noticed that he was lying in a green field, he got up into a sitting position he noticed a familiar someone sitting next to him. It was Sakura.

"Good, you're awake. You've been asleep for quite a while now," she said.

"Where am I?" he said, not believing in what he was seeing. "A dream?"

"Perhaps," she replied, smiling.

He stared at her for a moment, she was different somehow. Her hair was as long as she had it when her first met her.

"There are people back there that care about you," she said, looking up into the sky.

"But I think I would like to stay here," Aidan protested.

"No, it is not your time," she said. "There is someone who cares for you, but she is not one who shows her feelings."

"What do you mean?" he asked, until he figured out what she meant.

Any further of Aidan's protests went unsaid as Sakura leaned in and kissed him. He returned it and when they were finished, she said a simple but strong phrase. "I love you…"

Finally, he knew what her final words were before she died. She tried to tell him, but couldn't, because she couldn't muster the strength to speak. As he pondered that, his vision of her faded to black. When he opened his eyes, he say that he was staring straight up at the ceiling of the infirmary. He turned his head and saw that Meia was sitting next to him.

Next chapter up sometime before next week, hopefully.


	16. Chapter Fifteen: Before the Storm

Disclaimer: Vandread belongs to Gonzo.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Fifteen: Before the Storm**

_Location: Infirmary, Nirvana_

Meia was relieved when she saw Aidan wake up. For a moment, she believed he would actually have died. He positioned himself into a sitting position, pain evident on his face. He apparently noticed her, and looked into her eyes.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Am I?" she replied. "You're one to talk."

He laughed, it was the second she heard him laugh. The first time he did it was when they were on the Artemis, and that was more of a mocking laughter. This time it appeared to be genuine laughter. Although it didn't last long, for he clutched his broken ribs in pain. She couldn't place it, but there was something different about him.

Meanwhile, in the conference room, Magno, BC, and Gascogne were discussing the aftermath of the battle.

"Repairs are coming along, we have several breaches that need to be properly resealed," Gascogne stated.

"Total casualties from the battle come up to twenty-four. Ten dead, fourteen wounded, including Aidan Mercer," BC stated. "Surprising, since we were in a fierce battle."

"Speaking of him, is he alright?" Magno asked.

"He just regained consciousness not too long ago," BC replied.

"If he's strong enough, I think we should have him report here. He might know what that strange energy field that disabled our shields and weapons is," Gascogne said.

"Good idea, have him report here if he feels up to it," Magno said.

_Sounds of gunfire got her attention. Having just finished changing, Maria looked outside her room to see her father lying on the ground, blood pooling underneath him. She ran over to his prone body._

"_Father!" she cried, and she looked up to see two soldiers pointing their guns at her._

"_Don't worry, you'll soon be joining him," the one closest to her said as he pointed his gun at her head. Before he could react, the soldier behind him pitched over onto his face, a crack split the air a split second later. A black armored figure had just shot one of them in the back and the other turned around and fired his assault rifle, he was shot, and he fell onto his back, his finger convulsively holding the trigger. The gunfire tracked away from the black figure and struck the wall._

_Frightened, she grabbed a laser pistol off the floor and pointed it at the figure now approaching her._

'_Stay away from me!" she screamed as she fired it him. A second later she realized the figure grabbed her arm and pushed it upward, sending the shot into the ceiling._

"_Get a hold of yourself," he said as he took the pistol from her. "I'm on your side. I'm with the Solaris Defense Forces."_

_He lifted up the visor of his helmet and looked her in the eye. "You need to get off this station, there's a ship in the dock waiting for you."_

"_A ship? For me?" she asked, tears still in her eyes at the sight of her murdered father._

"_Yes, but you need to be strong, there's nothing you could have done," he said as he pulled her to her feet. "Let's get going," he said as snapped his visor shut._

Maria was knocked out of her thoughts by a rap at her door. She turned her attention to the door.

"Who is it?" she asked, still sulking on her bed.

"It's Ezra, and I thought you could use something to eat. May I come in?"

She thought about refusing, but her stomach growled in protest. "Sure," she replied weakly.

The door opened and Ezra walked in with a tray in her hands. She walked over to where Maria was sitting and sat down beside her and sat the tray on her lap. On the tray was a bowl of soup, a loaf of bread, and a glass of water. She stared at it for a moment before picking up the spoon and started to take sips of the warm broth.

"You know, Dita was just trying to help you," Ezra said, referring to when Maria told Dita to go away.

"I know, I was just in a bad mood, I'm sorry," Maria replied.

"Dita is the one you should apologize to, not me," Ezra said in her usual kind-hearted voice.

"I'm such a coward," Maria said, putting the tray onto the bed next to her.

"Don't say things like that," Ezra said.

"But it's true," she said, holding back tears. "I was like that when Aidan rescued me from the soldiers that were about to kill me. And when the assassin tried to kill me as well."

"But you are strong, otherwise you wouldn't be hear today," Ezra said, trying to cheer her up.

"I just don't know anymore," Maria said, no longer able to hold back her tears.

Aidan sat in one of the many chairs at the conference table, watching the recording play over and over again. It showed the expanding energy field engulf Vandread Dita, causing it to split up, then switched to a view of the Nirvana about to fire, but the systems shut down and the shields dissipated as the energy field struck it.

"Do you have any idea as to what that was?" he heard BC ask.

He thought for a moment, and he finally remembered. "I believe that is what is called a Paksis Nullification Device."

"Paksis Nullification Device?" Meia, who was sitting next to him, asked.

"Yes, it was a device that was supposed to be used to disable the Earth's automated fleet by a emitting a wave of electromagnetic energy containing an anti-Paksis virus. It shuts down any system or vehicle controlled by the Paksis. Although, there was only one prototype, and apparently it fell into enemy hands," he stated.

"So if that's what we're up against, we might have a little bit of trouble if they decide to attack again," Gascogne said.

"But why are they not attacking?" Magno asked.

Aidan shrugged. "I really don't know."

"Alright, dismissed," Magno said.

Aidan saluted, which was unusual, for was not even part of the military. He turned and walked out the door, Meia following right behind him.

A few days later…

Meia headed down the corridor at about 2 A.M. whenever almost everyone else was asleep. He was thinking about something while she made her way to the cargo hold where her Dread was kept.

_Why have they not attacked yet?_ she asked herself. _They have had ample time, plus our defenses are weakened and they have the advantage of that Paksis Nullification Device._

She didn't like waiting around, and they were taking too damn long to attack. What were they doing? They were out of range for the Nirvana to scan them, or even see them. Where were they hiding?

She came to the hangar and walked over to her Dread, which sat berthed with Dita's and Jura's Dreads. She climbed into the open cockpit, and sat there for a while. She liked the solitude of this place, it was soothing. It allowed her to clear her head. It was then she came to a decision, she would go scouting for the enemy. She closed the canopy and powered up her Dread.

Healed enough that he was allowed to return to his quarters, if you could call them that, Aidan lay on his bed, contemplating nothing of extreme importance. Actually, he couldn't sleep, and was just staring at the ceiling. He heard footsteps out in the corridor, they were soft, but in the dead of night, soft sounds could sound loud.

He pushed himself up and got off his bunk and looked out into the corridor. The footsteps belonged to Meia as she walked down towards the cargo bay. She seemed to not have noticed him. He grabbed a blue jumpsuit and put it on, as well as his boots. He was going to find out where she was going at this time of night.

After following her, he noticed that she was in her Dread and now just powering it up. What was she up to? She apparently was taking off without orders, so he thought she was going to look for the enemy. That was a bad idea. He decided to follow her. After she took off, he bolted toward the remaining Striker, as the other was trashed. He decided he'd follow her, and powered up the Striker. He took off a few minutes later.

Meia was well on her way in her Dread, heading out to the last known location of the enemy. A few minutes later a blip showed up on her sensors, it was a friendly unit, a Striker. She keyed her comm.

"What are you doing out here?" she asked. "You're supposed to be getting some rest."

"I couldn't just let one of my commanders go off on her own without backup," he replied, grinning.

She smiled. "Alright." She lost that argument. She slowed her Dread to allow his Striker to keep up.

Thanks for the reviews, here's the next chapter.


	17. Chapter Sixteen: Ambush

Disclaimer: Repetitiveness can get very annoying. Like it is right now.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Sixteen: Ambush**

_Location: Uncharted System, Approaching Planet._

Checking his sensors for perhaps the tenth time in the last five minutes, Aidan didn't spot anything. This was getting frustrating, for the enemy was nowhere to be found.

"Do you think we should head back? I haven't found a trace of them," Aidan said with a little irritation in his voice.

"Not yet, I still have a feeling they are nearby," Meia replied.

Aidan checked his sensors once again, and still no trace of them. He checked over his weapons systems again as well. Once he was satisfied, he followed Meia towards the massive planet that they were approaching. It was mostly blue-green, similar to what Earth had been. He was knocked out of staring at the planet by a blip on his sensors. He quickly checked, but the blip was gone. Something wasn't right.

"I think we should pull back, something isn't right…" Aidan said before being cut off by what appeared to be a swarm of missiles heading straight for them. He had been right, this was a trap.

This was disturbing, that was for sure. Both Meia and Aidan were not on board the ship. Meia's Dread and the one remaining Striker were not onboard the Nirvana. Where would they have gone? Magno didn't like it one bit. She had a feeling they had gone to find the enemy's location.

_What are you guys up to?_

Evading the directed missile attack with just a little difficulty, Meia dodged and returned fire at the fighters that had suddenly appeared almost out of nowhere. Several of her shots struck the body of the fighter, jarring the pilot and knocking slightly off course. Off to her left, Aidan took several shots at fighter that a pass by him. She tried to contact the Nirvana to inform them of their situation, but all she was getting was static.

"Damn, they're jamming out long-range communications," she said.

"Yeah, I kinda noticed that," Aidan replied, taking yet another shot, then ejecting the rifle's empty magazine, and loading another one into the weapon. "So, what do we do?"

She was about to reply, but then a massive object came out from behind the planet, it was a ship. She saw it's weapons charge, and the fighters took evasive action.

"Evasive action!" she yelled as several energy beams shot out from the ship. One of them struck her Dread, and it tore completely through her shields, and completely tore off one of it's wings. She fought for control of her Dread as several sparks showered over her cockpit as one of the panels exploded. Her Dread started to spin out of control, it's path leading straight towards the planet.

Maria stood in front the mirror in her room. In her hand was a pair of scissors, and she was busy cutting her hair. She was also thinking about what both Aidan and Ezra had said to her.

"_Yes, but you need to be strong, there's nothing you could have done." _

"_But you are strong, otherwise you wouldn't be here today," _

Yes, she would become strong, if not for her, for the people around her. And for that, she needed to change. She set the scissors down on the edge of the sink, and ran her hand through her violet hair. It was now as short as most men tended to keep their hair.

"I'm going to change," she silently told herself before she left the bathroom.

After seeing her Dread start to plummet towards the planet, Aidan immediately began to pursue. He was cut off by a Striker that managed to get in front of him.

_Lousy bastards_, he thought at seeing them using the stolen equipment. He drew his vibrosword and drove it into the chest of the stolen Striker. The Striker fell away, them exploded into a ball of light as it's engine went critical. He was knocked around by several shots, some of them battering against his left arm's shield.

"Get the hell out of my way!" he yelled as he charged through them towards the planet. He took a few more hits, but it didn't deter him from his course. Her Dread began to enter the atmosphere, as was evident by heat now surrounding it. He charged forward positioning his Striker's battered shield in front of the cockpit and drove forward into the atmosphere as well. He began to sweat as the heat started to become unbearable, and some the armor all over the Striker started to warp and melt. It clearly wasn't meant to do this. But he kept on going, and an image of Sakura flashed into his mind.

"Not again! Not again!" he yelled as he finally entered the atmosphere and began to scan for her crashed Dread. Because of the angle of his Striker and the speed at which it was falling, it was heading straight for the jungle infested terrain. He slammed on the reverse thrusters but they didn't help much. The Striker slammed into the ground violently threw him around in the cockpit and knocked him unconscious.

Captain Arturo Mehtan grinned savagely as he saw the enemy fighter plunge into the planet's atmosphere, as well as the enemy Striker. He knew the heretics were going to send a scout team, and he had set up this ambush to capture any enemy foolish enough to follow. His destroyer, the Avenger, had been allowed to detach from the main group to lie in wait for the enemy.

"I want a recovery team dispatched to the planet's surface. If they are alive I want them taken prisoner and I want that enemy fighter recovered and brought back to the ship," he ordered.

Slowly awakening, Aidan took a few seconds to orient himself. He was facing downward, with his restraining harness the only thing keeping him from falling out of his seat. He surmised he was on the planet's surface. He unhooked himself and dropped onto the cockpit hatch. He then remembered that he had to find Meia to see if she was alright.

He reached up and opened a panel, and grabbed a first aid kit from it, as well as a sub-machinegun from a compartment underneath the seat, as well as a few extra clips of ammo. He grabbed a few other things and put them into the bag along with the first aid kit. He slung the bag over his shoulder and grabbed the SMG. He then pressed the button to open the cockpit hatch. When it wouldn't budge, he tried again. After a few more failed attempts, he just pounded his fist against the emergency release switch. The hatch blew off on small charges and he jumped out of it and onto the ground.

He immediately felt hot, humid air with a stench he couldn't care for. He scanned around and noticed that it was a thick jungle he was in. He glanced back the wrecked Striker.

"Man, that's two destroyed, they'd have my head for this," he said to himself, referring to the Solaris Defense Force.

He opened up the compact computer strapped to his left forearm. On the map it located a metallic mass about ten kilometers east of his location. He immediately headed in that direction.

Meia woke up to a biting pain in her left arm. She looked down to see there was a bad cut on it, and it was bleeding. She instinctively applied pressure to the cut to try to stop the bleeding. She looked out of the canopy to see raindrops start to patter. She had blacked out when her Dread entered the atmosphere. She must have crashed somewhere in the jungle region of the terrain. She tried to start up her Dread, but to no avail. She heard tapping against her canopy and looked up. She noticed Aidan standing above her. She opened the canopy and he held out his hand.

"Are you alright?" he asked as she grabbed a hold of his outstretched hand. He pulled her out of the cockpit an helped her down off of the Dread and they both took shelter under the remaining wing.

"How'd you find me?" she asked, holding her left arm.

"This," he said showing her the compact computer. " It has the ability to detect large amounts of metal as far as fifty kilometers away." He then noticed her wound. "Let me take a look at that," he said as pulled out the first aid kit.She winced slightly in pain as she rolled up her sleeve.

"You came prepared," she said as he started to treat her wound.

"Always be prepared," he said, as if quoting something. "It was drilled into me ever since I started military training."

"There," he said as he finished applying the bandage to her arm.

"Thanks," she said as she leaned against the hull of her Dread.

"No problem," he replied.

Yep, I do plan on a lot more on-foot action for Aidan. Just lettin' ya know.


	18. Chapter Seventeen: Hunted

Disclaimer: Vandread is the property of Gonzo. I own all characters and technology corresponding to the planet Solaris, which is also mine.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Seventeen: Hunted**

_Location: Jungle, Meia's Dread_

It had been about an hour since they crashed onto the planet's surface, and Meia was yet again in the cockpit of her Dread, to see if she could get it to start again. So far every attempt met with failure. Frustrated, she slammed her fist down on the console and ignored the pain it sent through her hand.

"Any luck down there?" she asked Aidan, who was trying to help repair the Dread.

"Nope, I can't do anymore," he said as he shut a panel.

The rain was still coming down, and by this time they were both soaked. Aidan climbed onto the Dread and met her as she climbed out of the cockpit. "You know, we're not going to be able to get off this rock unless the others find us," he said

"But we can't activate the Dread's beacon function, because it will attract the enemy," Meia said, frustrated.

Aidan stared at her for a moment, with her hair matted down from the rain, and a frustrated look on her face. He found her oddly attractive. Before he could think better of it, he said it out loud.

Meia was apparently caught off-guard by the statement, for she blushed and looked away. "Shut up," was her only reply to that statement.

Before either of them could say anything further, the sounds of a roaring engine filled the air.

"Damn, I knew they'd do this," Aidan said as he looked at Meia. "It's a dropship, they're sending a team to try and capture us." He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away from the cockpit. "We need to get away from here."

"But, what about my Dread?" she asked after they had jumped off the Dread and onto the ground.

"It's not going anywhere," he replied as he pulled her into the jungle.

The large, angular dropship sat down in a clearing about five kilometers from where the Striker crashed. The bay doors on the rear opened up to disgorge several soldiers in full combat gear. Each one was armed with a laser rifle, and held it at the ready. The last soldier casually walked out of the dropship and onto the ground. He raised the visor of his helmet and scanned the area.

"Alright, I want a five kilometer search around the dropship. You are to split into teams of two and begin your search for the pilots and the fighter. If they are dead, fine, but if not I want them taken prisoner. Do I make myself clear?"

"Sir, yes sir!" came the reply of several soldiers in unison.

Staring at the dropship from quite a distance away, Aidan could tell it was a large one. Even through the thick vegetation it still could be seen. Something seemed a bit awkward, that was for sure.

"It's them, but they're using a dropship that's too large for a small unit of soldiers searching for us," he said quietly. More to himself than to Meia. She overheard him, and replied.

"They're probably hear to confiscate my Dread. They must want it because of it's connection to the Paksis."

"Damn," Aidan muttered. He tossed his sub-machinegun to Meia. "Use this, it has very low recoil and it's suppressed, which means it doesn't make hardly any noise."

Before she could protest, there was a noise off to their left, the sound of crunching footsteps. It appears as one of the patrols got near their location. They both instinctively took cover. Two men slowly crept forward, rifles ready to shoot at anything that moved. Without warning, Aidan grabbed the rear soldier and put him in a sleeper hold. The other turned around, ready to shoot him, but was hit in the back with a burst of gunfire, which knocked him forward. The bullets didn't penetrate his flak vest, so he wasn't harmed. That was, until Aidan hit him with a blow to the abdomen that knocked the wind out of him. Another blow to the jaw knocked him out. Aidan then picked up both of their rifles and walked over to Meia.

"Sir, we've lost contact with two patrols, they appear to have been taken out," the solider reported.

"Damn, any luck finding that fighter?" the commander asked.

"None yet, sir, they are still searching for it."

Suddenly, his helmet mounted communicator crackled to life. "Sir, we've found the fighter, it's about ten kilometers from your current position."

"Good, soldier, secure the area and as soon as we acquire the prisoners we'll load it onto the dropship and get out of here," he spoke into his helmet mike.

"Roger, sir."

Aidan slowly crept through the underbrush, wary not to let his and Meia's presence be known. They were trying to make it away from the soldiers searching from them, for which they seemed to get ever closer. Aidan had a feeling, he couldn't quite place it, but something was not right. His suspicions were correct, when several soldiers appeared almost out of nowhere. They were surrounded.

Aidan raised his rifle into firing position, but did not even attempt to pull the trigger. One of the soldiers spoke, his tone demanding.

"Drop your weapons, you are surrounded! If you do not comply, we will be forced to open fire."

Slowly, Aidan lowered his weapon and tossed it away from him. Meia did the same a second later. The enemy soldiers advanced.

The commander watched as they led their prisoners back to the dropship. One was a man whom he recognized as a SDF soldier, with attire that proved it. The second was a blue-haired young woman, wearing a pilot suit of some kind. He knew she was one of the Mejalean pirates that defeated Earth in the Harvest War. The mere thought of that disgusted him, how could this woman be one of the people that defeated the unstoppable Earth fleet?

"Get your hands off of her!" the brown-haired soldier yelled at the men that were escorting the woman.

"Be quiet, Infidel!" the guard yelled as he pushed him with the muzzle of his rifle.

The soldier acted like he complied, but instead suddenly stopped and slammed his foot down on the guard's foot and slammed the back of his head into the faceplate of the guard's helmet. He then back-kicked the guard in the stomach. He was hit in the back by the stock of another guard's rifle and knocked onto his knees. The guard then aimed the rifle at his head. _Looks like we have a defiant one._ He walked over to the prisoner who was now restrained.

"Name and rank, soldier," he barked.

The only reply he got was a venomous stare. He walked over the man and looked at his dogtags. "Mercer, Aidan. Rank, Captain."

"Take them to the dropship," he ordered the guards.

Meia watched as Aidan attempted to escape, but was hit with a rifle, and knocked to the ground. The restraints around her wrists prevented her from doing anything. She was to be a prisoner, a fact that she did not like. After she and Aidan were taken to the dropship, it lifted off, and her Dread was in the cavernous compartment with her.

"So, what will happen to us now?" she quietly asked Aidan, who was seated next to her.

"We will be taken to their ship, thrown in the brig, probably interrogated, and eventually killed," he replied, looking straight ahead.

"Sounds like loads of fun," she muttered as she leaned her head against the cool metal surface of the wall and closed her eyes

Well, that's the end of the story for ya. Just kidding, I'll get the next chapter up soon.


	19. Chapter Eighteen: Captive

Disclaimer: Let me put it bluntly, I do not own Vandread.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Eighteen: Captive**

_Location: Warship Avenger, Brig._

Aidan rubbed his cheek, on which a bruise started to appear. He had been struck by the butt of a rifle across the face earlier when he tried to get away from his guard. He sat in one of the cells, and Meia was in the one next to his. He moved from a sitting position to a lying one on the bunk in his cell. There was a wall separating the two cells, so he couldn't see Meia. His gaze fell on the guard in front of his cell, who was standing at attention, with his weapon in hand. He badly wanted to get off this ship, but he knew an escape attempt would be met with lethal force, and it was pretty much suicide if he tried. There was pretty much nothing else to do, so he closed his eyes. At least he'd get some sleep.

Meia sat on her bunk and leaned against the wall. This was not going well at all. The ambush, her being shot down and imprisoned by a bunch of fanatics that believed what Earth was doing was the right. Did it ever appear to them that they'd be harvested as well? They probably were looking forward to it. She wondered what everybody on the Nirvana would be thinking right now if they saw her like this. She wondered what Aidan was thinking right now, as well, as awkward as it seemed. She fought the drowsiness start to pull at her, but she wouldn't give in. The last thing she wanted to was sleep at a time like this.

Meanwhile, on the Nirvana.

Maria walked through the doors to the cafeteria, full of new confidence. She ignored all the stares that were directed at her and grabbed a tray and walked over to the table where Dita and Hibiki sat.

"Do you mind if I sit with you guys?" she asked.

"Sure, go right ahead," Dita replied. "I like your new look," she commented.

"Thanks," she replied, taking a seat next to Dita. "Sorry… about what I said to you earlier," she apologized.

"You don't have to apologize," Dita said, smiling. "I know how you felt."

Across the cafeteria, someone else was deep in thought. Misty sat at the table, not even touching her food. She wondered where Meia had gone, for she had been gone for almost two days. That soldier named Aidan was also gone. Where did they go? Were they captured or killed by the enemy they had been fighting? She hoped it wasn't that.

"Where are you, Dear Sister?"

The alarm sounded throughout the ship, and everybody darted to their stations. Jura immediately headed for her Dread. Upon launching, she opened a channel to the rest of the squadron.

"Since Meia is not here, I'm taking command, all team leaders, form up and prepare to engage the enemy," she ordered .

"Roger!" the replies came as one as all the Dreads and the Vanguard advanced.

On the other side the fighters leapt into action. Then the ships of the opposing fleet opened fire, this was not going to be an easy fight.

Lieutenant Julia Marks bolted immediately for the her action station as soon as the alarm had sounded. She headed for the lift to the main cargo bay, where she was supposed to report. Once she was in the lift and it was on it's way, she wondered for a second why they had been called to alert status. Once the elevator reached the bay, she immediately went to where the rest of her unit already was. She was temporarily in command of the 4th Special Forces Detachment, Team Five, also known as Death's Grenadiers. Her current commander was currently missing in action, his last known location had been on the S.D.S Artemis, which was also currently missing.

She walked over to Heinrich Steiner, her second-in-command for the time being. "Report."

Heinrich, who stood a head taller than her, with an impressive build. His blue eyes and close cropped blond hair finished out his appearance. When he spoke, it was in a deep Germanic accent. "We have been ordered to report for immediate boarding action, as there has been an enemy destroyer located in this system."

After she got the full report on the situation, she gave the order to her Team. "Suit up."

The fighting had been chaotic, with neither side gaining a significant advantage, until a certain weapon had been activated. Forced to flee or be destroyed, the Nirvana immediately headed for the nearest safest location, a nebula. The whole crew was relieved when the enemy failed to pursue them into it. What they failed to notice, was that they were not the only ones to use the nebula for a hiding place. Several ships were in there, all of them bearing the markings of the Solaris Defense Force. Due to the interference caused by the nebula, neither one of them could see or detect each other, yet.

Walking up to her Krieger Heavy Powered Armor Suit, Julia nodded to the tech assigned to her. It was difficult to get in the armor without assistance as she once figured out. Julia immediately stripped out of her black and blue jumpsuit, and into a special black bodysuit, which carried a sophisticated sensor mesh. It would transmit movement and combat commands to the suit's onboard computer. It also monitored the operator's physical condition, which could allow the administering of painkillers, stimulants, or antibiotics from the medipack built into the suit.

Propping herself up on the back of the armor, she slid her legs into the lower half of the armor. Once her feet were firmly locked into the heavy boots, she leaned forward and settled herself into the thick, heavy breastplate. She then inserted her arms into the metal sleeves and gripped the manipulator controls in each arm. With the help of the tech, she locked the heavy breastplate with the rest of the torso. The tech then checked to see if all the seals, circuits and interlocks had been connected properly.

When the last piece of armor had hiss-popped into place, the tech connected several wires to run a diagnostic and calibration check on the suit's systems. While he was running the check, Julia used the suit's fully manipulative hands to attach a specially modified double-barreled laser rifle to the armor's right vambrace. Normally, she didn't like to use this armor, as she was the team's sharpshooter. She preferred to be unencumbered, or use a light powered armor. But she was going to fight on a ship, which meant she'd be fighting close quarters. The rest of the team would be armed similarly. One of her team, a Private Nick Hawkins, carried a canvas bag full of breaching charges and other explosive devices in a built in cargo point on his armor.

Once the tech was finished, he gave her a thumbs up. She returned it and snapped her helmet's faceplate down. On it was a painted a skull motif, and the 'eyes' of the helmet glowed a sinister red sensors and targeting system powered up. She keyed the suit's helmet-mounted communications link.

"Comm check, Team Five?

"Five-Two ready."

"Five-Three online."

"Five- Four here."

"Five-Five, I'm ready."

"Alright, let's move out!"

"Sir! Unidentified vessel has just come up on our scans!" the sensor tech reported, with a little hint of excitement in her voice.

"Blast, can you confirm who it belongs to?" Admiral Alexander Graff bellowed.

"No, sir," she replied. "The nebula is interfering with our scans."

"Dammit," he muttered. _As if this couldn't get any worse._

The Dauntless, along with all of the surviving ships of the Solaris Defense Fleet, took shelter from the ever encroaching enemy in a vast nebula. They had taken significant losses, and had to retreat from battle. The remnants of the fleet, some thirty ships out of fifty four, were left after that hellish battle. Now possibly a hostile ship maybe entering the area, if so they would be found out. He wouldn't let that happen.

"Okay, I want several combat teams to prepare for boarding operations," Graff ordered. "They are to assemble in the main cargo bay for briefing at 0800."

"Aye, sir," one of the bridge crewmen replied.

Aidan was jolted awake by a sudden, violent shaking throughout the ship. He nearly fell off his bunk, but awkwardly managed to get into a sitting position. He looked at out of his cell, and in the corridor beyond, and saw several crewmembers franticly running back and forth. He could hear panicked shouting and the sound of running footsteps, as well. It appeared that this ship was under attack.

Chapter Eighteen up, currently working on the next chapter.


	20. Chapter Nineteen: Liberation

Disclaimer: I do not own Vandread.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Nineteen: Liberation**

_Location: Warship Avenger, Outer Hull_

After jumping out of the assault ship and onto the hull of the destroyer, Julia and the rest of Team Five landed on the scarred hull of the ship. The armor had been blasted in some areas, though not deep enough to penetrate. The warship she was on, the S.D.S Whirlwind, struck out with its laser cannons and scored several hits on the enemy vessel. Now it was up to them and a few other teams to enter the ship and secure it.

Private Nick Hawkins was the first to land onto the hull of the ship. Not too long after, Julia used the ejectable maneuver thruster pack mounted on the back of her armor. With little difficulty, she landed onto the hull and almost immediately the magnetic boots pulled her onto the hull. She headed over to their entry point, which was an airlock. Private Hawkins was placing a breaching charge onto it and quickly moved away. An explosion tore through the hull, and Julia could feel it even through her heavy armor. As there was no air in space, the explosion little resembled what it would normally look like. But it still had the same effect, as two bodies flew out into space.. With rapid efficiency, the team bolted through the now-open airlock and into the interior of the ship.

In the Dauntless' main cargo bay, twenty soldiers stood at attention as Admiral Graff gave them their orders. Major Nigel Owens was one of the men standing at attention. In his late thirties, he was of normal age for a person of his rank. He listened intently as the Admiral was giving the orders. He was in overall command of the four combat teams that would board the unknown vessel.

"We have located an unknown vessel entered the nebula approximately five hours ago," Graff was saying. "We found out that it matches nothing currently in our database. So, it might not be one of our enemy, but it has the possibility of being hostile. Your orders are to board the vessel and find out if it's actually a threat to us. Due to that fact, you will only be allowed to use non-lethal weapons and weapons set to stun. You will launch at 0845, that is all," he said as turned and walked out of the cargo bay.

"Alright, you heard the man!" Owens bellowed as he turned to face his troops. "Suit up!"

Julia snapped a couple of shots off at one of the enemy soldiers impeding her way. Both shots caught him high in the chest, dropping him where he stood. It had been almost too easy, at the beginning. They were stunned at the sudden appearance of several large, armored figures. She swore she saw one of the poor bastards wet himself as soon as he saw her. Then they had regrouped and started to put up more of a fight.

They had set up barricades up in the corridor ahead, determined not to let her team any further. Their efforts were futile, however as Steiner unloaded an unhealthy number of rounds from the chain gun slung under the right arm of his armored suit. Instead of their normal armor-piercing ammo, they were loaded with a special flechette ammo, so they wouldn't breach the hull of the ship. The shots tore into the ineffective barricade, splattering the soldiers behind it all over the deck.

"This is almost too easy," Steiner said, his thick accent heard clearly through the comm.

"It looks like they weren't expecting a fight," she replied as they advanced forward. As they passed an intersect in the corridor.

"Lieutenant, to your left!" Hawkins yelled out as a soldier charged at her. Purely on instinct, she raised her left arm and swung hard, backhanding the brave, if not foolish soldier in the head. The blow threw him into the wall. He slumped against the wall, his skull crushed.

"Remind me never to get on your bad side," Hawkins said sarcastically as he saw the brutal display.

Ignoring that comment, she turned to face the rest of her team. "Alright, let's get going."

Major Owens checked over his troops as they stood at attention in full gear. He himself was going to command his team on the boarding operation. He looked over each trooper and noted with satisfaction that all of his men were ready to go. Every trooper had on a full body armor suit, to allow protection to almost every part of their body, except their head. They had a helmet for that. Each one of them, including the Major, carried a powered down laser rifle. All it would do would stun the target it hit. The rifle could be set to it's regular power output at the flick of switch. And they were only to do that if the ship was indeed one of their enemy's. Each trooper also carried a few smoke grenades, and Owens carried a laser pistol, also set to stun.

"Alright, let's move out!" he commanded as they boarded the small, sleek assault shuttle that would allow them to rapidly close and board their target.

The whole crew seemed to be on edge, as a result of their second defeat at the hands of the fanatics from Solaris. Barnette felt the same way, for she was injured in the last attack, although it wasn't a bad injury. She was aggravated at the thought of having to retreat from battle a second time. The cowards had used that device again, and again they were forced to back off again. They apparently hadn't bothered to enter the nebula to finish what they started. She wanted to fight, badly, to drive them back to wherever they came from. Her thoughts were interrupted as she thought she saw a small, black object moving toward the Nirvana from a viewport on the ship. She felt that there was something wrong with that object.

Julia charged forward, intent on closing with the bastard that killed one of her teammates. The soldier had managed to fire a lucky shot through the collar of the armor. Her teammate had dropped heavily to the deck, blood pouring out of the neck wound until he stopped moving. As soon as she thought she had him, he shut the hatch in her armored face. Steiner knelt downed and checked on his fallen comrade.

"He's dead," he said in a flat tone.

"Damn, Hawkins, I want this hatch blown open," she ordered him.

"Yes, ma'am," he replied as he went over and placed a breaching charge on the hatch. When he was done, he backed away. "Get clear!"

The explosion tore the hatch open, and she bolted through it. She found the soldier running away from her.

"Oh, no you don't," she said as she raised her right arm and fired. The shots hit him in the leg just below the thigh, cleanly severing it and he dropped to the deck, writhing in agony. His screams filed the corridor as she calmly walked over to wear he was squirming and fired a pointblank shot in the head. He stopped as blood began to pool where most of his head used to be.

After the execution of the soldier, she noticed that she had found the door leading to the brig. She blasted it open and went inside. She killed both guards quickly with shots from her laser rifle. She looked up and saw someone familiar. It was Aidan Mercer, her team's original leader. The person in the other cell she did not recognize.

"About damn time you got here," Aidan said as he stood up.

Meia had looked up to see a huge armored figure blast it's way through the door and kill both guards in the room. She looked at it more closely and noticed that it's face looked like a skull. Briefly she thought about the Mejalean space suit that had intimidated the men of Taraak with the mask it had. This looked like it would kill you with a glance, and it's armored bulk backed that up. Briefly it looked at her and she saw it's red, glowing eyes. She shivered slightly, until she heard Aidan speak up. The armored figure raised it's faceplate to reveal a young woman's face. She was clearly surprised at the fact. The figure then smashed the control to open Aidan's cell and he got out of the cell.

"Why are you here, in a place like this?" the woman asked him.

"It's a long story, Lieutenant," he said as he picked one of the dead guards' rifles and walked over to her cell. He raised the rifle and fired at the lock mechanism and the cell door opened.

"And who's this?" she asked," gesturing to Meia.

"My name is Meia Gisborn," she said to the woman in the armor.

"Lieutenant Julia Marks," the woman said.

"Captain, we're picking up a transmission," Ezra reported. "It's audio only."

"Put it on," Magno replied.

"Roger," she said.

"_This is… we are in need of assistance… damaged, respond." the voice said._

"It's coming from that shuttle," BC said, bringing up a fuzzy image of a black shuttle.

"They appear to be in need of assistance," Magno said. "Allow them to dock."

"Captain, are you sure that's wise," BC commented. "We don't know who they are."

"I know," Magno replied. "But we'll find out, let them know they have permission to dock."

The ruse had worked, they just got the signal to dock, they just found their way in. Major Owens nodded to the pilot of the small craft. He turned to face his men.

"Alright, once we dock, prepare to engage, our primary objective is to secure the bridge."

"Yes, sir!" they responded in unison.

Chapter Nineteen done. And as always, your feedback is appreciated.


	21. Chapter Twenty: Error

Disclaimer: Vandread belongs to Gonzo.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Twenty: Error**

_Location: Nirvana, Main Hangar_

Slowly, the small black shuttle glided its way into the hangar. Apparently the pilot was very good. The shuttle slowly settled onto the floor of the hangar, its landing gear supporting it. After the hangar re-pressurized, a small security detail entered the hangar to escort the shuttle's inhabitants. Little did they know that the shuttle contained twenty specially-trained soldiers that were under orders to take control of the ship. Major Owens went over the plan one more time with his troops.

"Alright," he said, his visor still up so his men could look him in the eye. "You all know the plan, once we are out of the hangar, we will split off into four teams and make our way separately to the bridge, and quickly subdue any resistance we encounter," he said as he snapped his visor shut.

"Go! Go! Go!" he shouted as the shuttle's ramp started to lower. The soldiers quickly bolted out of the lowering ramp and Owens heard several cracks, which he knew was laser fire. He was the last one out, and he noticed that all of the security personnel were on the ground, unconscious. Without another word, the twenty soldiers split into their assigned teams.

He noticed a peculiar thing, but dismissed it a second later. The security team consisted solely of women, and they wore uniforms he did not recognize.

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"Any word on our guests?" Magno asked.

"Not yet, but the security team I dispatched hasn't reported in yet," BC replied.

"Captain! There are reports of weapons' fire in the corridor outside the hangar," Belvedere's panicked shout stopped all conversation.

"What!" BC yelled.

"There are several groups of soldiers, I believe they may be headed here," Amarone reported.

BC began rattling off orders as the crew prepared to repel the boarders.

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Corporal Daniel Harwell lead his team through one of the many corridors of this ship, they were to make their way separately to the bridge, so they couldn't all be pinned down in one area. They had encountered little resistance so far, as apparently the crew was surprised by their sudden appearance. They were quickly rendered unconscious by shots from their laser rifles. It wasn't long though, before the alarms sounded throughout the ship and they had started to fight back. His team was pinned down in one of the corridors, and every time one of his men tried to look around the corner, they took shots at him. He took a grenade off his combat harness and pulled the pin. In an awkward cross-body throw, he tossed the grenade down towards the women.

He activated the infrared imaging installed in his helmet as the air began to fill with thick white smoke. He then moved out from the corner and took several shots, disabling the women who were firing on his team. The smoke had no effect on him or his team, as their helmets had built in air filters, effectively rendering the smoke useless against them. After he had finished off the remaining resistance, he signaled his team to move.

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Barnette was waiting for a fight like this ever since the incident with the assassin. It appears she got what she was looking for. She and several other security personnel were in one of the Nirvana's many corridors, using several overturned tables as a makeshift blockade to prevent the intruders from getting any further. She took her pistol out of its holster and checked it's ammo. Satisfied, she holstered it and picked up an antique but still effective M16 assault rifle, inserted a fresh magazine.

"This is where we hold the line, we will not let them get any further!" she shouted.

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Corporal Harwell led his team further into the ship, only firing on anyone who offered resistance. This wasn't so difficult, he thought, although it may have been too soon for that thought. What he saw in front of, about fifteen meters was a blockade. He noticed a dark-haired woman standing behind it in the center. He didn't know exactly what she was wearing, but it appeared to form-fitting, and it made her look very attractive. The only thing that kept him from staring any further was the fact that raised an assault rifle at him. He raised his rifle, but she was faster, flame leapt from the barrel of her rifle as she let off a three-round burst in his direction. He attempted to dodge them, but you couldn't outrun a bullet, let alone three.

The slugs slammed high into his left arm, but only one managed to penetrate. Pain lanced through his arm as he was jerked to the left. He felt his arm start to go numb and blood started to run down. He dropped his rifle as he stumbled and fell to the deck. Immediately, one of his teammates leapt to help him, and dragged him back around a corner to avoid more fire. The trooper who helped him, Private Rawlins, fired blindly around the corner, in an attempt to get their heads down. He then looked over at his team leader, although Daniel couldn't see his face the black visor of the helmet he wore.

"Are you alright, sir?" Rawlins asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied, holding his left arm. "Take the team and link up with the others."

"But-"

"I said link up with them, I'll try and stall them."

After nodding, Private Rawlins and the rest of the team went off in the direction that another team had taken. He sat there, and leaned against the wall, and waited for them to advance.

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Barnette hopped over the barricade and crept over to the corner where the enemy soldiers took cover, her weapon at the ready. She leaned up against the wall, and rapidly turned, her weapon up, ready to fire. There was no one at eye level, but when she glanced down, she saw the trooper she had shot. She pointed her weapon at him as she approached him. He saw her and raised his right arm in a sign of surrender, as his left arm was wounded.

"Take off your helmet," she barked.

"Alright," he said as he unhooked something on the collar of his suit and lifted the helmet off of his head. She saw that he was rather young, although not as young as her. He had short, black hair and blue eyes.

"Tell me your name," she said.

"Corporal Daniel Harwell," he said flatly. "You don't appear to be one of them."

"One of who?" she asked, still pointing her rifle at him.

"I'm with the Solaris Defense Force, and you don't look like one of our enemy," he said.

Suddenly, the realization hit her. This man was not her enemy, in fact he was supposed to be fighting the same enemy she had been fighting. But something didn't add up. "Why'd you attack us?"

"I guess the higher-ups had mistaken your ship for an enemy. That's why we were deployed, to take control of your ship. We were under orders not to use lethal weapons, so any of your crew shouldn't be badly injured," he said as bit back on the pain in his left arm.

"You need medical attention," she said, and she ordered one of the crewmates to get Duero.

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Maria was suddenly surprised at the sounds of laser fire sounding throughout the corridor. She was in her room when she heard it. Curious, she opened her door and looked out. She saw several soldiers in dark armor bolt down the corridor. She recognized the insignia on the shoulder of the armor one of them was wearing. It was the silver gauntlet clenching a double-edge sword on blue shield of the Solaris Federation. But why were they attacking this ship. She needed to do something about that. She followed them, but kept her distance.

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Major Nigel Owens and the rest of the teams under his command burst through the doors to the bridge, to see a startled crew. The only one's that appeared to not have been affected by their entrance was a silver-haired woman and the old woman which he assumed to be the captain of this vessel. His team covered everyone on the bridge, including the bald man near the front.

"Don't move, or we will open fire," he barked.

"Who do you think you are?" the old woman asked.

"I am Major Nigel Owens, and I claim this ship in the name of the Solaris Federation."

"Solaris Federation…" the old woman said, as if she'd heard it before.

Before anyone else could speak, the sound of a familiar voice echoed across the bridge.

"You will not," a young woman with short violet hair said as she walked up to him. "You will stand down."

It took him a few seconds to recognize her as Maria Shakov, daughter of the late Prime Minister. She had shorter hair than the last time he saw a picture of her. Caught totally off-guard, he composed himself. He removed his helmet and began to speak.

"Miss Shakov, what are you doing here, aren't you supposed to be on the Artemis?"

"It's a long story, but apparently we have plenty of time," she said as she looked him in the eyes.

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Gasps No Aidan or Meia in this chapter. They will show up in the next one.


	22. Chapter Twenty One: Interlude

Disclaimer: Vandread belongs to Gonzo.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Twenty-One: Interlude**

_Location: S.D.S Whirlwind, Main Hangar_

Not too long after the shuttle settled onto its landing gear, the rear hatch opened up to allow several powered armored soldiers to exit the craft. There were also two others, but they were not wearing the black, heavy armor. Aidan was one of the others, and he felt comfortable now that he was back on a familiar ship. He looked over to the far left and noticed a few techs working on a damaged Striker, a casualty of the recent battle.

"Hey, Mercer!" Julia said over the sounds of the repairs being carried out.

"What is it?" he asked as he walked over to her.

"I just got finished with speaking with the Colonel, he would like to speak with you and as well as her," she said, gesturing to Meia.

"Right now?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied.

"Alright," he said, and before she could ask. "Don't worry, I'll find it."

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After Meia had got off the cramped shuttle, she stretched her sore muscles. Apparently they didn't design those things with comfort in mind, she thought bitterly. She then heard the woman named Julia call Aidan over. As they were talking about something, she looked around. There were several people moving about, mostly technicians, from what she saw. No one apparently paid much attention to her, as they had work to do. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Aidan walk up to her.

"What did she say?" she asked.

"My commanding officer would like to have a word with me… and you as well," he said.

"Well, let's not keep him waiting, then," she said.

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Aidan walked up to the door and knocked on it a couple of times. After a few seconds, he heard the reply "Enter." He depressed the button that opened the door and walked into the office, quickly followed by Meia.

"Reporting as ordered, sir," he said flatly as he raised his right arm in a salute.

"Ah, Captain Aidan Mercer, it's good to see you," Colonel Karl Albrecht said as he returned the salute and stood up. He was a tall, muscular man with a square jaw. As in he was in his early forties, his brush-cut black hair was streaked with gray, and his eyes were steel gray, just like Aidan's. He also had a long, crescent-shaped scar running from right under his right eye to his jaw. "At ease."

"And you too, Colonel," as he assumed the 'at ease' position. This commander he actually liked, unlike his previous commander who was 'dismissed' from the Defense Force.

"And you are?" he said, looking over at Meia.

"Meia Gisborn," she replied as she moved up next to Aidan. "I am from Mejale."

"Mejale…" he said, stroking his chin in thought, then he lowered his hand. "By any chance are you one of the ones that halted the Earth forces' advance?"

"I lead the squadron that spearheaded the attack," she replied.

He nodded and turned back to Aidan. "Where have you been all this time?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Well, that's a long story, sir," Aidan replied.

"I have time," the Colonel countered.

Aidan let out a breath and began to explain it to his commander.

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Major Owens stood on the bridge of the pirate vessel, stunned by the recent information he'd just been told. The Artemis was destroyed and her entire crew dead. Only Maria and the special forces soldier acting as her temporary bodyguard made it out alive. She'd told him that the soldier, a one Captain Aidan Mercer, armed the crippled vessel's self-destruct system to prevent the ship from falling into enemy hands. And he'd been told about the assassination attempt, where a lone rebel assassin masquerading as one of the ship's crew attempted to kill her, but failed. She'd told them about their contact with the rebels, and the following battle that led them to hide in the same nebula the SDF was currently using to hide their presence from their Earth-loving enemy. Boy, was he going to have to file one _hell _of a report on this.

"Corporal, head back to the shuttle and get a message back to the Admiral, tell him that we have located the late Prime Minister's daughter, Maria Shakov," he ordered one of his troopers.

"Yes, sir," the trooper replied as he bolted off the bridge and towards the hangar.

"So, if what you're telling me is true," he said, turning back to the old woman who identified herself as Magno Vivan, Captain, of this ship, which she called Nirvana. "Then you and I…"

"Are not enemies," Magno finished. "We found those two on the crippled Artemis, and let them stay on board the Nirvana. "Several of our crew died or were wounded by the cowardly assassin, so we decided to search and link up with your fleet, but apparently your enemy found us first."

"It looks like you're going to have to speak with Admiral Graff, the commander of the remnants of our fleet," he said. "I'll have to let him know first."

"Alright," Magno replied.

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Daniel Harwell sat on the edge of the operating table while the long-haired doctor named Duero worked on removing the bullet from his arm. He glanced over to the table where his helmet, weapon, and top half of his combat suit lay. He then looked over at the woman who put this bullet into him. She was standing over in the corner, the holster at her side unbuttoned and he hand down near the weapon in it.

"I told you, I'm no threat to you anymore, we're on the same side," he said, glancing down at her holstered pistol.

"How do I know that for sure?" she asked sarcastically.

"Come on, I'm wounded and unarmed, what can I do to you?" he asked back. He grunted in pain as the doctor removed the blood-covered bullet and tossed it into a tray. The doctor then grabbed some bandage and started to apply them.

Just then somebody walked into the infirmary, and Daniel recognized it as Private Rawlins, the man he'd ordered to go on without him. He held the helmet with his left hand and his rifle was slung over his shoulder. "It's good to see that you're alright."

"It was just a scratch," Daniel replied instantly. "Why are you here?" he asked out of curiosity as Duero finished applying the bandage.

"The Major had a talk with the Captain of this ship, and we just received word from the Admiral to stand down, they're not our enemies," he said, running his free hand through his somewhat unruly, short blonde hair. "Also, you're not going to believe this, but the Prime Minister's daughter was on board this ship."

"No way," he replied, hardly believing it.

"Yeah, just what I thought till I saw her with my own eyes," Rawlins said.

"Ahem," he heard the woman speak. She'd been ignored since Rawlins arrived.

"Oh, sorry, my name is David Rawlins, I was part of Daniel's squad," he said as he turned to face her. He turned back to face Daniel. "We've been ordered to return to the Dauntless," he said, naming the command vessel for the Solaris fleet.

"Alright, David, go on ahead, I need to get my gear," he said as he got up off of the table. "Thanks," he said the doctor.

"I was just doing my job," Duero replied.

He went over and put his gear back on. It took him a few moments, as he had a little trouble with his injured arm. Once he finished snapping the armor into place, he picked up his helmet and rifle. As he reached the door, he turned to the woman.

"I didn't catch your name," he said.

"Barnette, my name's Barnette Orangello," she replied.

"Nice to meet you, Barnette," he said, then walked out.

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Meia followed behind Julia at a casual pace. She had been dismissed from Colonel Albrecht's office, for it wasn't necessary for her to be there at the current time. From what she knew, this Julia was one of the soldiers in Aidan's squad. They stopped in front of a door, which looked the same as the others.

"You'll be bunking with me," Julia said.

"Alright," she replied.

Julia had short blonde hair and a tanned complexion, also, she looked a lot different when out of the powered armor she wore. She held out her hand to Meia. "It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Julia," she said as she shook her hand.

"You're going to have to fit in a little more around here, there's a jumpsuit in the locker, you can wear it after you get cleaned up," she said.

"Thanks," Meia replied. She really did need a shower, after spending several hours in a muggy jungle.

She walked into the room, noticing that didn't really have many personal effects. It was rather Spartan. There were a couple of bunks, as it was typical for crewmates to share rooms on a military vessel. She took off the top part of her suit and tossed onto her bunk as well as the black piece of jewelry that her mother gave her and her laser ring.. She then unzipped her pilot suit and took it off. She walked over to the shower and stepped in and closed the door. She then turned on the warm water to let wash away the dirt and grime, as well as her worries.

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Feedback is always appreciated.


	23. Chapter Twenty Two: Planning, Part One

Disclaimer: Vandread belongs to Gonzo

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Twenty-Two: Planning, Part One**

_Location: Mejalian Shuttle, Approach Vector to S.D.S Dauntless_

Hibiki sat there, reclined on one of the foldout bunks in the shuttle, pondering the recent events. Things had gone very badly for them, being driven into this godforsaken nebula, then, under the ruse of a damaged shuttlecraft, a team of soldiers managed to fight their way to the bridge. He had been shot by them more than once. He tried to jump one of them, but was thrown to the ground and shot at least three times. That was what pissed him off, the fact that he couldn't take on and beat a small group of soldiers. Now they were going over to the other ship, to talk. Apparently, they were on the same side, as was evidenced by their use of non-lethal weapons, as they were unsure. He was knocked out of his thoughts by Dita's outburst. He nearly fell off the bunk.

"Take a look at that!" he heard her say over the comm system, as she was in her Dread and acting as one of the escorts for the shuttle. Out in front of the shuttle, at several meters away, was the Solaris Defense Force's command ship. It was massive, larger than the Nirvana. It stretched several hundred meters long, and its slab sides contained several gun ports. Near the front of the vessel, were what looked like several missile launch tubes. He was awed at its threatening appearance, and he knew it could turn this shuttle into particles in a split-second. He noticed some of the gun turrets aim towards the shuttle, tracking its flight path.

"That's the Invincible Class Battle cruiser, Dauntless," Maria said as she noticed Hibiki looking at the warship.

"Looks impressive," he admitted.

"Incoming!" Barnette reported from her Dread as a pair of forward-swept winged fighters in Solaris blue and black approached the shuttle and its two Dread escorts. Suddenly, the comm system crackled to life, and the image of the lead fighter pilot showed up on the screen. The face of the pilot was masked by a helmet, but the voice was definitely that of a woman's. The helmet had an image of a predatory bird painted on it.

"This is Falcon One, we were sent to escort you in," the pilot said.

"We acknowledge, lead the way," BC replied.

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"So what of the captured ship, the Avenger?" Aidan asked his commanding officer.

"The Captain has already sent over a prize crew and several technicians to repair the damage. We will stay in orbit over this planet until she is repaired," Albrecht replied.

"Good," he said, one more ship for their side, he thought with a little satisfaction.

"But you're getting off subject," Albrecht said. "You left the late PM's daughter on that Mejalean pirate ship?"

"I assure you she's fine, sir," he replied. "Besides, what did we recover from the Avenger?"

"We recovered thirty-four fighters, a couple of captured Strikers, and a large stockpile of weapons and equipment," Albrecht said after glancing down a data pad on his desk. "As well as a few Dropships and shuttles.

"What about the Dread?" Aidan asked.

"What?" Albrecht replied, not knowing what it was.

"The Dread, the fighter that belongs to Meia," he said, "It was silver, and would have had heavy damage."

"No, it is not listed here," Albrecht said as he looked at the pad again, and then handed it to Aidan.

Aidan took a look at it for a few seconds, and then laid it on the colonel's desk. "Is it possible that it was counted as one of the thirty-four?"

"Yes, but unlikely," Albrecht replied. "Because every one of their fighters used to belong to us, so every model is either the same or similar, if there was a different fighter like the one you described, it would have been noted separately."

"She's not going to like to hear that," Aidan muttered under his breath, before speaking up again. "Permission to be dismissed, sir."

"Granted," Albrecht said. Aidan saluted and exited the office.

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Admiral Alexander Graff sat at the desk in his quarters, staring at the old woman in front of him. He was both relieved and a bit remorseful at the news they'd just given him. He was relieved that Maria Shakov was alive and well, but remorseful because of the loss of the Artemis and its entire crew. Captain Cranston was one of his best ship commanders that didn't defect to the other side. He was listening to her inform about the other survivor, a special forces soldier that had protected Maria from an assassination attempt and had participated in a battle against the rebels, and went missing just before another attack, and presumed captured, along with one of their pilots. He was caught on the most interesting fact about them, though; they were the ones that defeated the Earth forces.

"We were forced to take shelter in this nebula after receiving heavy losses in our last battle with the rebels," he said after a long pause. "They haven't found us yet, but it appears they might, as they are nearby."

"They didn't pursue us into the nebula, as they know they can beat us because…" the silver haired woman who identified herself as BC said.

Shifting his gaze to her, "… because they have the Paksis Nullification Device," he finished.

"Paksis Nullification Device?" the old woman named Magno Vivan asked.

"It was originally developed for use against the Earth forces. It was designed from data of several captured pieces of Earth equipment. It was designed to send out a type of electromagnetic virus that is set at the same frequency the Paksis, basically immobilizing anything powered or controlled by it."

"That explains a lot," Magno replied. "But how did they get a hold of it?"

"When they instigated their rebellion, they managed to capture several ships, and unfortunately, they captured the Indomitable, the battle cruiser equipped with the prototype P.N. Device," he informed them.

"Our original intention was to link up with your forces and coordinate our efforts against these so-called rebels of yours," Magno said.

"And why is that, if I may ask?" he asked, a little curious.

"Because the assassin they sent and the subsequent battles killed several of my crew, and I'm not one just to let them get away with it," she replied grimly.

After pondering on it for a moment, he came to a decision. "Alright, I'll need info on your current force composition and strength if we're going to formulate a plan of action."

"Very well," Magno replied.

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Meia felt uncomfortable onboard the Whirlwind, she wore a standard issue blue and black jumpsuit, it was devoid of any rank pins, as she was not part of this military. It did make her look less like an outsider, so almost everyone paid her little attention, for which she was grateful. The reason she felt uncomfortable was because she was on a ship with mostly men. After a while, she got used to them, but that was when there was just three, now there was a ship full of them, which made it a little uncomfortable.

"Hey, Meia!" she heard someone say from behind, and she turned and saw it was Aidan.

"What's up?" she replied as he caught up with her.

"They went over the equipment and weapons that were onboard the captured ship, and your Dread wasn't on the list," he said rather bluntly.

"What?" she replied, stunned. "Where is it then?"

"I don't know, I think they may have transferred it to another ship while we were held captive," he replied.

"Damn," she muttered. "We have to find out where they took it."

"I know, but the fact is that we don't know, and if they did, the ship could be anywhere," he said.

They both turned to see someone running up to them, and he stopped a few feet in front of Aidan, and saluted.

"Capta- err Major Aidan Mercer?" he said correcting himself.

"Yes," he said as he returned the salute. "What is it?"

"The Colonel wants you both to report to the briefing room at once, he said it was urgent." the soldier said, panting from running.

"Alright," he replied as he started to walk rapidly. Meia followed right behind him.

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Chapter 22 done, let me know what you think.


	24. Chapter Twenty Three: Planning, Part Two

Disclaimer: I've said it before, and I'm tired of saying it again.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Twenty-Three: Planning, Part Two**

_Location: Tactical Briefing Room, S.D.S Whirlwind_

"Take a seat," Colonel Albrecht said without preamble as Aidan and Meia walked through the door of the briefing room. Aidan could tell this was strictly business, so he did as was told and took a seat next to Nick Hawkins, his teams' explosives expert, which was in the second row. Meia took the empty seat right next to him. From what Aidan could tell, his entire team was at this meeting, as well as another team from the same detachment. From what he could tell, his team as well the as the other were being assembled because he had an operation planned. What it had to do with Meia, he did not know, unless the colonel had found out where they'd taken her Dread.

"Good, now that everyone's here, we can get down to business," Albrecht said as soon as everyone was seated. "As of 0126 hours last night, we uncovered a critical piece of information, the location of a top-secret weapons testing facility." He shut off the lights and the image of a map appeared on the screen behind him. Aidan recognized the rocky, wooded terrain as an area near one of Solaris' southern mountain ranges, as he listened to the briefing.

"This is the area where the facility is supposed to be," he said, using a stylus to circle the area on the device in front of him. The circled area was near the center of the map, on an elevated position. "The facility is camouflaged from view by satellite or ship, so the only way to spot it is on the ground."

"So, you want us to destroy the place, sir?" one of the soldiers said aloud.

"I'm getting to that," Albrecht answered. "Another interesting piece of info is the fact that this is the fact where they took the captured Mejalean fighter." This last piece of information was directed at Aidan and Meia.

"How did you come across that information, sir?" Aidan asked, even though he was not sure his commander would answer it.

"This information was acquired from the interrogation of the Avenger's former captain." Albrecht answered.

"The mission calls for a covert HALO jump from one of the Avenger's stolen shuttlecraft," Albrecht said to the gathered commandos.

"HALO?" Meia whispered to Aidan.

"High-Altitude Low Opening," Aidan answered in a low voice. "It is useful for covert insertions into enemy-held territory."

"Your primary objectives are to download as much data as possible on every weapon spec and design in their database, and after that is completed, you are to destroy the facility by any means necessary. Your secondary objective is the recovery of the stolen Mejalean fighter."

After that last part, Meia seemed ready to protest, but Aidan put his hand on her shoulder and shook his head. She sat back down.

"The report indicates the facility has a reinforced concrete wall about eight meters in height, and sizable garrison force," Albrecht continued. "As such, you will be using powered armor, but nothing over standard size, as the maximum weight of the shuttle cannot carry the extra weight of the heavier models. Captain Mercer?"

"Yes, sir?" Aidan said as he got to his feet.

"You will be in command of this operation," Albrecht said. "Are you up to it?"

"Yes, sir," Aidan replied, confident.

"You have two weeks to prepare for this operation, while they finish repairs on the Avenger. Then we will jump into the Solaris system and your shuttle will debark and your mission will commence. That is all, dismissed," Albrecht said.

Aidan got up out of his seat, but before he could make an attempt to leave, Colonel Albrecht called his name.

"Yes, Colonel?" he asked.

"I'd like to speak with you for a moment," Albrecht said.

Aidan walked up to where the colonel stood. "Yes?"

"Captain, do you know why I chose you for the role of commander?" Albrecht asked.

"No, I don't sir," Aidan replied.

"Because you're the one with the best record among this detachment, and I have complete confidence in your abilities." Albrecht said. "Oh, and by the way you get a temporary promotion to the rank of Major for the operation."

"Permission to speak freely?" Aidan asked, and proceeded when Albrecht nodded his head in approval. "Why did you allow Meia in on the briefing?"

"Because the location of her fighter was found, and I thought it relevant to let her know, and you seem to trust her, so I saw no reason not to," Albrecht replied.

Aidan thought for a few seconds, and then got an idea. "Isn't my team down one man?"

"Yes, he was killed during the operation to secure the Avenger," Albrecht said.

"Then, since my team needs a replacement, why not let her be that replacement?" Aidan asked rather boldly. "She knows about the operation anyway, and I'll take care of her combat training."

After thinking about it for a while, Albrecht answered. "Alright, but as you know, she is not part of this military, nor is she even a citizen of the Solaris Federation, so you are responsible for anything that happens to her."

"That is a risk I'm willing to take," Aidan answered.

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Magno was amazed with the speed at which the Solaris fleet commander had come with a battle plan. He'd got it to her in less than four hours, which means he probably pushed his tactical commanders hard. It called for the entire fleet to move through the nebula to just outside the system where the planet Solaris is. It calls for a decisive battle against the rebel fleet guarding the planet, seeing as they intercepted comm traffic from the rebel fleet that was pursuing them just received orders to return to Solaris. The travel time through the nebula would be approximately two weeks.

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Meia stood outside the briefing room door while Aidan and his commander talked. She was relieved that they found the location of her Dread, but also worried. The mere fact that her Dread was a testing facility meant that they were going to run tests on it. She was also a little miffed that they would consider recovery of her Dread second priority, although she should be grateful that they'd even bothered to consider recovering it. The door opened and Aidan walked through, and she turned her attention to him.

"So what did he say?" she asked.

"He basically gave me the reason why he chose me to command the operation, and he gave me a temporary promotion to major," Aidan answered in response to her question.

"Did he say anything else?" she asked.

"No, but I did manage to convince him of bumping the recovery of your Dread to a primary objective." Aidan said.

"That's good," she said, relieved.

"But there is one stipulation…" Aidan trailed off.

"And that is?" she asked.

"You are now part of Team Five of the 4th Special Forces Detachment," he said with a smirk.

"What!" she nearly shouted.

"It's only temporary, and besides, that is the only way I could be sure the Dread got into your hands," Aidan replied.

"But I don't know the first thing about special forces combat," she said.

"Don't worry about that, you have two weeks to learn," Aidan said.

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Captain Gunter Argust wasn't a happy man. He'd wished he could finish hunting down the heretics that dared defy Earth's will. But instead, he'd just received orders to return to Solaris for repair and refit. They were direct orders, so he had to obey them, no matter how much he didn't want to.

"Inform the rest of the task force, we have been ordered to head back to Solaris. Charge the jump drives and plot in the appropriate coordinates. We're leaving within the hour."

He vowed he would return and hunt them down like the dogs they were, but not today.

"Jump drives charged, and the fleet reports ready," a crewman reported.

"Very well, initiate jump drives, now."

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Chapter 23 finished. Feedback is appreciated.


	25. Chapter Twenty Four: Preparation

Disclaimer: Vandread is owned by Gonzo, all fan-created characters, equipment, vehicles, etcetera, belong to me.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Twenty-Four: Preparation**

_Location: Briefing Room, Nirvana_

Jura, having been in command in Meia's absence, went over the plan with Hibiki, Barnette, Dita, and all of the other surviving Dread pilots. She wished Meia were here, because she'd know how to explain this, after all she was the Dread Team's Leader. But ever since her disappearance, she'd had been thrust into command, because someone had to lead them. She took a breath and prepared to explain.

"Alright, the plan they sent to us is rather straight-forward, once we complete the two-week trip to their home planet, Solaris, their fleet will engage the defenders while we have a more specialized mission. We are assigned the role to destroy the S.D.S Indomitable, the ship equipped with the Paksis Nullification Device," she said.

They'd all been briefed earlier on the device, but they already knew what it could do. She continued to explain.

"While they are engaged, we are to punch through their lines and destroy or at the very least cripple the Indomitable," she said, bringing up a map simulation of how the attack should go.

"We will begin to run simulations, so everyone report to the simulators," she said.

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Meia managed to duck just a laser bolt lanced over her head. If she had been a second too slow, the laser would've killed her. That wouldn't happen here, for this was a training exercise. She wore a special sensor suit that would let her know if she'd taken any hits. The exercise's goal was for her to take out Aidan, who was her opponent. If she took a hit in the chest or head, the exercise would end, if she took a hit on any of her limbs, the suit would immobilize them, effectively crippling her ability to move.

She crouched behind the cover of a large rock as a few more laser bolts lanced over her head. She tightened her grip on the laser rifle and glanced through her close-fitting helmet. She returned fire, not sure of his location, and not caring, because she knew she was pinned down. She needed to get to a better position, and firing in his general direction might get him to lower his head enough for her to get in a position where she can threaten him. She took a deep breath and bolted out from behind the rock…

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Maria sat in the chair facing Admiral Alexander Graff's desk. She was feeling slightly uncomfortable, but she couldn't determine if it was the Admiral's presence or the chair. The Admiral placed the hardcopy report he was looking on the desk and looked up at her.

"So, what was it that you wanted to talk about?" he asked.

"Well, I ask for permission to go back aboard the Nirvana," she replied.

He sat there for a moment looking her in the eyes. "Out of the question."

"Why not?" she asked, suppressing her irritation.

"Because your safety is of prime importance," he said. "So you will stay on this ship."

"If I may say so…" she said. "This ship will be in the thick of battle once we get to Solaris, so how can you say this is a safe place to be? And besides, I've gotten used to living there, and what little personal possessions I have are also on the Nirvana."

After several long seconds, Alexander Graff replied. "Alright, I'll arrange for a shuttle to take you over there in half an hour."

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Meia reflexively pulled the trigger on her laser rifle, sending a laser bolt straight at Aidan. It grazed his left arm, which was good but not good enough. He took cover behind a fake rock wall, and her other shots hit the wall. Suddenly, Aidan dove out from behind his cover in sideways roll and snapped off several shots. One managed to hit her right arm, causing a slight jolt as the suit made the arm go limp. The next shot hit her in the shoulder, knocking her onto her butt as her rifle fell to the ground. She looked up to only to stare straight into a rifle barrel. Aidan had beaten her, she failed.

Aidan lowered his rifle and signaled for an end to the exercise. He held out his hand, and she took it and he pulled her to her feet. He took off his helmet and ran his hand through his hair, which she noticed had grown a little longer since she first saw him.

"Good job," he said. "Not many have done as good against a trained soldier as you have."

Once she could move her arm again, she took off her own helmet. "Thanks."

She followed him out of the training area and into the locker room, which to her surprise, both men and women had to share it. Aidan had explained to her that was pretty much common on all ships in the Solaris military. He reached down into what appeared to be a cooler and pulled out two bottles of water. He tossed one to her, and opened his and took a swig of it.

"It won't be long now," he said. "Before we make the jump into the Solaris system."

"What is a jump?" she asked.

"Let me put it this way: It's when the specialized drives on this ship literally tear a hole in the fabric of reality and hurls the ship several light years in the matter of a couple of seconds," he replied.

Suddenly a beeping noise filled the room. Aidan lifted up his wrist communicator and spoke into it. "Mercer here."

"Major, report to the tactical briefing room in ten minutes, Colonel Albrecht's voice said through the comm. "You are to plan combat exercises with Sergeant Kemp," he said, naming the other team's leader.

"Understood," he replied, then shut off the communicator. "Well, so much for a break?"

Meia chuckled lightly. "It would seem so."

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Aidan walked into the briefing room and noticed Colonel Albrecht and Sergeant Kemp look up from the holographic map display. He barely had enough time to take a quick shower and change into a fresh uniform. He tossed a quick salute and walked over to the display.

"Major Aidan Mercer reporting as ordered, sir," he said.

"Drop the formalities, Major," Albrecht said bluntly, but not harshly. "We were going over the terrain in which you will be deployed."

"Alright," he replied, and looked down at the map. It was the same map he'd seen before, but was compressed into a smaller area, and in the center of the map was a large circle that denoted their LZ, or landing zone.

"There is a slight change in plans,' Albrecht said. "Instead of deploying from the Whirlwind, you will deploy from the Avenger."

"May I ask why?" Aidan said.

"It is because they still believe the Avenger is one of theirs. We received a message from the rebels that indicated that they should return to defend Solaris from a possible imminent attack," Albrecht answered.

"Makes sense," Aidan said. "It'll be easier to get past their defenses."

"We also received a coded message from the Dauntless, they have rendezvoused with the Mejalean pirate ship that your friend is from. In about a week they will make it to Solaris, where we are to rendezvous and join them in the assault that will liberate our planet from those fanatics," Albrecht said.

Sergeant Kemp, who'd remained quiet until now, finally spoke up. "So, when do we begin the transfer over to the Avenger?"

"Tomorrow at 1400 hours," Albrecht replied. "You are to select and prepare your gear for transport over there, and you will jump into the Solaris system two days before the attack will commence. Inform your teams of this. That is all, dismissed."

"Yes, sir!" both men said in unison and exited the room.

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_It is only a matter of time now,_ Hibiki thought. Three days left until they were going to emerge from the nebula just outside the Solaris system. He had been waiting to pay them back for both defeats they'd handed the Nirvana._ Well, not again._ This time they had the backing of an entire fleet, and they had the express mission of taking out the ship that had caused them so much trouble.

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"What's this all about, Major?" Julia asked as she entered the room.

"We are going to move over to the Avenger," he replied. "We will be using the captured ship to get past their defenses to make our insertion."

"Okay, now let's go over equipment selection." Aidan said. "Marks, you and Akida will be using the Falke light scout armor, as you are the scout/sniper element. Meia, you will also be using it, as it is the easiest to operate and not very cumbersome." Aidan looked over to the rest of his men. "Steiner, Hawkins, Deveroux, and I will use the Soldat combat armor. Kemp's team will be equipped similarly. Weapons are mostly personal preference, though there is several things that are required, like a lot of explosives."

"Leave that to me," Nick Hawkins, his team's explosives expert said with a feral grin. Aidan had later found out that his brother, Scott, was a fighter pilot that died in an earlier battle.

"Ja, when do make the transfer, Major?" Steiner, who was of Germanic descent, asked.

"Tomorrow at 1400," Aidan replied. "It's about time we paid these bastards back."

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Chapter Twenty-Four finished. Let me know what you think.


	26. Chapter Twenty Five: Descent

Disclaimer: Same as before.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Twenty-Five: Descent**

_Location: Armory/Equipment Bay, S.D.S Avenger_

With his legs locked firmly into the medium-weight powered armor, Aidan was pretty limited in his movement, but that mattered little. His type of powered armor, tagged the Soldat, which meant Soldier in the Germanic language, was primarily intended for general-use. It was meant for heavy combat, but not to the extent of the Krieger, the heaviest armor available. The sensor suit he wore allowed him to synchronize with the armor, allowing him movement as well as a link that would help administer painkillers and other stimulants in case he was wounded.

After he locked his hands and arms into the armored gloves and gauntlets, the tech assigned to him helped lock the breastplate into place. Once that was locked and sealed, the tech plugged some wires into the suit and ran a diagnostic on it, to check for problems or damage. When he was through, he gave Aidan a thumbs-up. Aidan grabbed the helmet and cradled it in his left arm. He looked over to the other six men and women of his team, which were just finishing their suit-up procedures.

He walked over to the weapon rack and picked up a large, heavy rifle. He was unfamiliar with it, but before he could ask about it, Hawkins came up to him.

"That is an M-8 Gauss Rifle, sir," he said.

"Gauss rifle?" Aidan inquired.

"It's a relatively new weapon that uses a series of magnetic coils to launch a solid thirteen millimeter slug at hypersonic speeds," he explained. "Good anti-armor weapon, although it only has eight shots per clip."

Aidan let out a low whistle. "Impressive."

He lifted the weapon, which although was heavy, it didn't feel quite that way because of the suit's enhanced strength. He picked up a heavy automatic pistol designed for use with powered armor and inserted it into the magnetic holster on his right hip. Due to it's size, he would end up storing the gauss rifle in one of the several drop pods that would contain most of their equipment. Besides, the gauss rifle was best used against armored targets, such as battle armor. Using of on a standard foot soldier seemed a waste of ammo to him. That was why he was going in with a SA23G, a version of the Raptor assault rifle that had an integral three-round, pump-action thirty millimeter grenade launcher. After he had finished loading the gauss rifle and checking over his assault rifle, he looked over at Meia. She had just finished locking the armor into place. He knew this operation was going to test her, possibly to the limit of her abilities. It wasn't everyday someone with little to no military training covertly dropped into hostile territory to recover a stolen fighter and destroy the facility it was housed in. He was sure that she would perform well, she had no other choice.

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Meia had just finished locking the last piece of her armor in place as a loud klaxon sounded throughout the ship. She'd been told that this was the signal that the ship was preparing to jump into the Solaris system. In spite of the warning, she couldn't have prepared fully for what happened next. The universe seemed to expand around itself, and lights and sounds battered her senses. Suddenly, the universe snapped back into reality, and she took a step back and supported herself against a metal crate. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Aidan walk up to her, the sounds of his armored boots as they connected with the floor.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said, her breathing still a little heavy after the effects of the jump. She pushed herself off of the crate and tried to take a step. Due to the slightly disorientating effects of the jump and the fact that she wasn't totally used to the armor she was wearing, she stumbled. But she stopped before she fell, with an armored hand grasping her arm. Aidan helped pull her to her feet.

"Don't worry, it happened to me the first time as well, the effects will wear off in a minute or so," he said reassuringly. "I think it's time to get your gear aboard the shuttle, we'll be departing within the hour."

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The shuttle, which was originally designed to haul cargo to and from ships and planets was absent of any of its normal cargo. Tonight, it held fourteen passengers with the sole purpose of carrying a covert military operation. The shuttle would enter the atmosphere of Solaris far from where their target was and the HALO jump from the craft to the designated landing zone approximately five kilometers from the target. The target was a large, weapons testing ground hidden within a mountain range. The garrison strength was unknown at this time, because of the lack of accurate intelligence.

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Meia stood in the bay of the shuttle, fully decked out in powered armor. The armor wasn't a perfect fit, though that wasn't a problem. She had gotten used to it, but the helmet gave her a slight problem. She felt very uncomfortable with the helmet on, as well as in the shuttle. It took her back to the painful memories of when she was forced to leave her parents behind as she was unwillingly taken onto the overly crowded ship. She fought the urge to just take off her helmet and throw it down. Her breathing was heavy, and her muscles were shaking, although the suit masked it. She calmed down a little bit as she felt someone lay a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see the faceless mask of a powered armor suit. She assumed it was Aidan, because he was the only one she knew.

"Major, we'll be entering the atmosphere in about five minutes," the shuttle pilot announced.

"Understood," Aidan replied through his comm system.

Five minutes later, the shuttle started to vibrate from atmospheric entry. A few long moments later and the shuddering stopped. The shuttle had entered the atmosphere.

"Alright, listen up. Drop commences in ten minutes," Aidan announced to everyone in the cargo bay. "Check your equipment."

Each trooper went over his or her equipment and made sure it was ready to go. After that he slammed an armored fist on the large red button mounted on the side of the craft. Slowly, the rear hatch opened to reveal a dark, cloudy sky. The howling wind rushed in at high speeds, but everyone apparently didn't notice. Once the drop pods that carried their equipment were deployed, it was their turn. Kemp's team dropped first, one at a time, with Sergeant Kemp the last one out of the shuttle.

"Akida," Aidan said, naming his team's scout/spotter. "Go."

Jumping out and away from the shuttle, Corporal Akida disappeared from view as he fell into the stormy sky. Following him was Lieutenant Julia Marks, then Steiner, Hawkins, and Deveroux. It was her turn to jump out now. She was a little apprehensive, if not a little fearful. She had never done this before.

"Go," he commanded. She took a deep breath and jumped out of the craft. She went into the 'spread eagle' position dictated for this kind of jump. She felt the wind push against her as she rapidly fell through the atmosphere. A cold sweat broke out on her face as she checked the altimeter installed into her helmet. Suddenly, with a jerk, her first drogue parachute deployed, slowing her fall as it snapped her into an upright position. After fifteen seconds, explosive bolts fired, letting her drop free once more. Then another larger parachute deployed, cutting her rate of descent again.

After a painfully long minute, at which she stared at the ground, which showed up in the gray, green, and black of night vision. Then without warning, the chute blew off as well and deployed the final, steerable parachute. She used that to help steer into the designated landing zone. Once she was on the ground, she detached the parachute and let it flutter in the wind. Her entire body was shaking from the adrenaline that surged through her body. She swore she would never do that again, and would kill anyone who'd try and make her.

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As Aidan descended to the ground, he noticed that everyone landed in the designated LZ. He detached his parachute once he was on the ground. He spoke into the comm system built into the chin of his helmet. "Ghost Team, status report."

After a few long moments, Sergeant Kemp's voice sounded in his helmet. "This is Ghost One, everyone down and accounted for, as well as all of our equipment."

"Good, tell your men to prepare to move out," he said.

"Roger," the Sergeant replied.

"Alright, Spectre Team, report," he said.

"This is Spectre Two, I'm down and okay," Lt. Marks reported.

"Spectre Three, ready to go, sir," Steiner reported.

"Spectre Four, I'm ready," Akida replied.

"Spectre Five, I'm ready to go, but I think I have to have a little 'talk' with whoever packed my parachute," Hawkins replied with dry humor.

"Problems?" Aidan asked.

"No, sir, just a minor chute malfunction. I'm ready to rock," Hawkins replied.

"Spectre Six, good to go," Deveroux replied.

And finally, Meia replied. "Spectre Seven, ready."

"Alright, gather up all of the equipment and prepare to move out, I want to be well away from here before sunrise," Aidan commanded.

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"Colonel, we have a possible contact," the tech at the radar station reported.

"Where?" Colonel James Odon asked. He was in overall command of the garrison at Weapons Testing Facility Beta.

"There was a small craft, probably a shuttle, located about ten kilometers from this facility," the tech replied.

"How long was it there?" he asked, his voice that of one who was in charge.

"Only for about twenty seconds, then it disappeared off the radar."

"I don't like the sound of this," the Colonel muttered to himself. It was possible that it was a covert military force. He had to check it out. "I want several teams dispatched to the last known area of the craft to initiate a search."

"Understood sir," the tech replied.

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Chapter Twenty-Five complete. Sorry this didn't have any combat in it. You can expect the next one to. Feedback appreciated, as always.


	27. Chapter Twenty Six: Breakthrough

Disclaimer: Isn't repetition fun?

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Twenty-Six: Breakthrough**

_Location: Nebula, Edge of Solaris System._

Staring into the colorful expanse through the main armored view port on the bridge of the Dauntless, Admiral Alex Graff thought only of the coming battle that would test all of the men and women under his command. It had been several months since they were forced from their homeworld. It was only a matter of time before they would engage in the battle that would allow them to liberate their home planet or die trying. He continued to remain deep in thought for a few seconds until he was notified by the primary sensor tech.

"Admiral, we are coming up on the edge of the nebula," the female sensor tech reported.

"Alright," he replied. "Notify the rest of the fleet," he commanded the communications officer.

"Aye aye, sir," the comm officer replied.

He sat back in his chair continued to stare into the nebula, ready for the coming conflict.

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"Captain, we just received word from the Dauntless, we are coming up on the edge of the nebula," Ezra reported.

"Thank you, Ezra," Magno replied. "BC!"

"We are about to exit the nebula, all hands prepare for battle!" BC announced over the intercom. "All Dread pilots, prepare to launch when given the order."

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Suddenly, almost as one, most of the Solaris Defense vessels broke through the nebula. The sudden appearance of numerous vessels must have surely attracted someone's attention, and it did. Several of the defending warships suddenly powered up their weapons in preparation of the brutal fight they knew was coming.

Captain Gunter Argust was eager for the fight. He was ready to annihilate these heretics to the last man. "General quarters!" he bellowed.

"General quarters! General quarters! Everyone to their battle stations!" the announcement rang throughout the ship as everyone stopped what they were doing and immediately headed for their stations.

"So it has begun…" Argust said silently to himself.

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"Admiral, we report multiple contacts closing, the enemy's main line is approaching us." the sensor tech reported.

"Bring weapons online and prepare to engage," he commanded the chief weapons officer. His second in command, Marcus Randall, was currently down in the tactical operations room, keeping track of the battle down there. He was there also in the event the bridge of this vessel was destroyed, so the ship could still actively fight on.

"Prepare to fire the forward laser batteries, target that enemy Essex, and FIRE!" he commanded.

Several beams of white hot light lanced out to core into the nose of the lighter vessel, blunting its drive forward and nearly crippling it. Melted armor quickly froze for lack of atmosphere, although the areas where the lasers struck still glowed. It tried to respond, but most of its attack missed because of the damage dealt to it. The Dauntless poured another volley of laser fire into it, and the ship's spine appeared to snap as it capsized and exploded.

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Hibiki launched immediately as the order was given. He pushed his Vanguard straight into the thick of battle. Not far behind were the Dreads under the command of Jura. There mission was more specific, the destruction of the Indomitable, the warship responsible for all the misery they've received. Now they only had to find its location among the enemy fleet. He immediately dodged to the left as a pair of missiles streaked past him. He charged directly toward his tormentor, only to have the fighter break away from him at a speed he couldn't match.

"Dammit," he cursed, knowing he couldn't catch his target. _This is going to be harder than I thought._

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Several hours earlier, the sun was beginning to rise over the mountain range, casting an orange glow over the area. The spec ops team had set up camp about five hundred-fifty meters from the facility. Aidan scanned their target through a pair of electronic binoculars. It was a moderately sized facility that was embedded in the rock, making it almost impossible to enter. The only visible entrance to him was a large armored door approximately eight meters in height. As was typical, there was a guard post on the outside of the door. He saw at least two guards in full body armor suits at the post. He lowered the binoculars and climbed down from the ledge where he was back down in the small area where they set up camp.

"What did you see?" Lieutenant Heinrich Steiner asked.

"The only entrance into the facility is a large, eight-meter tall armored door. There appears to be no other entrance," he replied.

"So, do you think that they'll just let us walk through the front door?" Deveroux, his communications specialist, asked sarcastically.

Aidan ignored the comment. "The only other possible way in is to pretty much climb several hundred meters of rock with a large possibility of being spotted. Plus, we'd have to haul all of our gear up there as well."

"So, how are we getting in?" Hawkins asked. He never got an answer to that as Corporal Akida approached Aidan.

"Sir," he said. "We've detected movement, and it's heading in this direction."

"What kind of movement?" Aidan asked, a little concerned that the mission could be blown before it could even begin.

"It appears to be a large group of men, at least twenty of them," Akida replied.

"Damn," he cursed under his breath and lowered his faceplate. "Good work," he said to Akida. "Alright, let's move out, I want to find a suitable location to set up an ambush. If they are looking for us, I don't want any of them reporting our position."

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The commander of the twenty-one soldiers searched the area for any possible threat. There was a possibility that a few commando or recon teams were dropped into the area to either take control of the facility, destroy it, or simply just spy on it. He was originally on the Avenger, but was transferred over to the facility along with several of his men. They were the ones that captured the two prisoners and acquired that strange fighter.

"I want all teams in a five meter spread with overlapping fields of fire," he barked to his men.

They came across an area that appeared to have been occupied by someone not fifteen minutes ago. He signaled a couple of his men to check it out. Suddenly, there was a loud crack as a laser blasted one of the two soldiers in the chest. "Ambush!"

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Meia instinctively opened fire with her pulse laser rifle as Aidan shouted the order to open fire. She selected a target and sprayed him with several laser bolts. He dropped unceremoniously to the ground. The rest of Spectre as well as the Ghost teams laid down a murderous hellstorm of fire against the armed men. I less than three minutes it was over, with out a single casualty on their side. She slowly got up as Aidan walked over to where the last soldier fell.

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The commander of the facility's recon detachment coughed up blood. He knew he was going to die, but he at least wanted to take one of these bastards with him. He had taken several hits, but he still had his laser pistol in hand. He attempted to raise the pistol as one of the battle armor soldiers approached him. The soldier used his armored foot and stepped on his arm, pinning it to the ground, forcing him to let go of the pistol.

The soldier lifted up his faceplate and spoke to him. "Recognize me?"

"You…" he gasped, his breath ragged. "You're Mercer. How'd you…"

"So, you do," he replied. Mercer was holding a large, heavy pistol in his right hand. He aimed the pistol at the commander's head and squeezed the trigger.

Aidan stood over the bloody corpse of the man he just executed. He was the enemy, and mission parameters expressly forbade the taking of prisoners on this mission. He turned and walked away from the corpse.

"Let's move to a different location, I don't want to be anywhere near this area when they find out we killed their men," he said as he walked past Meia.

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"We found it!" Hibiki shouted over the commline as he spotted the Indomitable. It was near the center of the line, but was being held in reserve for some reason.

"Alright, stick with the plan, we are to attack and destroy the Indomitable before it can activate the P.N. Device," Jura said through their tactical frequency.

"Apparently, they aren't going to let us through," Barnette said over the commline, in response of a heavy attack by a wave of fighters. Hibiki knew one thing, this was going to be one hell of a fight…

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Frustrated, Captain Argust cursed under his breath. His ship was one of the strongest in the entire fleet, yet it was being held in reserve. He was badly craving for a fight, and he wanted to be at the front of it, to crush enemy ships with the Indomitable's lasers and missiles. And yet, they were holding him back. Then something suddenly caught his eye. It was the unmistakable silhouette of the Mejalean warship. Apparently he was going to get a fight…

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The battle has started. Feedback appreciated.


	28. Chapter Twenty Seven: Infiltration

Disclaimer: Vandread and all related characters and technology belong to Gonzo. All other characters and tech belong to me.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Twenty-Seven: Infiltration**

_Location: Mountain Range, five hundred-fifty meters from Weapons Facility. Two hours before start of space battle._

Lieutenant Julia Marks scanned the area with the advanced equipment of her Falke light scout armor. Her job was to find a suitable entrance to the facility, and it was a difficult task. Her armor was currently painted in a camouflage pattern that helped her blend in with the terrain. She had yet to identify any suitable way into the facility, but she would not give up. Giving up was for cowards and weaklings, and she was neither. She was just about to report to Aidan that she had yet to find any way into the base when she heard the sound of an engine. She looked over to spot a large cargo truck that drove up to the gate. The driver in the cab of the truck showed one of the guards his security card, and the guard motioned the other to open the large gate door. She allowed herself a slight smile, as she had just found their way in.

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"Alright, we hijack the truck and use it to enter the facility," Aidan confirmed her idea.

"Yes, that seems to be the best way inside, the next time the truck will get anywhere near this area is about another two hours," she said.

"But how do we capture the truck?" Meia asked as she listened in on the conversation.

"Now that you ask…" Aidan said with a smirk.

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The battle continued to rage, with neither side able to attain an advantage over one another. Explosions were commonplace as warheads detonated and fighters and mecha were destroyed. Occasionally a bright flash of light marked the destruction of another warship. In fact, even calling it chaotic was rather optimistic, as there were no solid battle lines once the two fleets literally crashed into one another.

As Barnette maneuvered her Dread around a large piece of debris, which she assumed used to be part of warship. She was forced to pull into a tight turn that put stress on her body as a group of missiles locked onto her. She managed to use the debris as a shield, the missiles slamming against it instead of her. She got a bead on the fighter that had launched those missiles and gave chase. Once she had a lock, she let loose several missiles of her own, and this time the enemy wasn't so lucky. The explosions engulfed his fighter, vaporizing it. Then suddenly a large amount of flak blasted away at her Dread.

"Damn!" she cursed as she was shaken around her cockpit. The fighter had managed to drag her into the range of the Indomitable's guns. She regained control of her fighter and moved out of the way, but not before blasting one of the turrets into molten scrap with the beam cannons mounted in her Dread's wings.

"Barnette! Are you okay?" Jura asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied.

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Gunter Argust was pissed, really pissed. When he noticed that Mejalean pirate ship had managed to approach his ship. He had wanted to activate the P.N. Device, so he could finish them off once and for all. Then a tech had informed that the device was beginning to have problems and wouldn't activate. It was the only prototype, so it might be normal for it to have glitches, but not a complete system failure. That was not good, and he had ordered them to fix it as soon as possible. Right now he would have to rely on the powerful weapons of his ship.

The entire bridge seemed to shake as the ship was hit with several lasers as a single destroyer took several shots at it. Argust ordered the portside batteries to unleash their fury on the foolish warship. The destroyer seemed to cave in on itself as the laser cannons tore into it. It exploded sending a slight shockwave through the deck. He savored the fact that another group of feeble heretics who didn't follow Earth's divine will were wiped from existence.

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"Admiral! We just lost the Sabre!" one of the bridge crew shouted out.

Admiral Graff ignored the fact that the destroyer was destroyed, for his concentration was fully on the other battlecruiser besides the Indomitable. The warship was originally christened the S.D.S Resolute, but had been renamed Divine Will by the rebels, then put into service as their flagship. At the time of their development, there was four of the Invincible Class. The first one, the S.D.S Invincible, was destroyed during the attacks by Earth. Of the other three, two fell into the hands of the rebels, including the one that had been outfitted with experimental Paksis Nullification Device. Only the Dauntless managed to avoid capture, due to the fact it was on maneuvers when the others were seized. Now he was going to be forced to fight the Dauntless' sister ship.

"All forward batteries, lock onto the Divine Will," he commanded.

"All forward batteries locked on, sir," the weapons officer replied.

"FIRE!" he commanded.

At that same time, the Divine Will fired back with equal intensity. The Dauntless shook violently as it took several hits along its nose. One of them got close to the bridge, causing a few small explosions inside the bridge. One of the ceiling panels fell, and exposed wires shot sparks. Small fires started to blossom, but were being put out by the fire suppression system. The Dauntless had been hurt, but she was far from out of the fight. The effects were equally devastating on the Divine Will. This was going to be a tough fight, but Alex Graff intended to survive it.

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Lieutenant Julia Marks stood on the side of the road in nothing but a pair of tight jeans pilfered from an abandoned shack, a drab green tank top and a pair of boots. She originally didn't want to go through with Aidan's idea, but he stated they'd need the two men in the truck alive, for awhile anyway. She was to act like a hitchhiker so the truck would stop, and then they would take the driver and passenger by surprise. Then she saw the truck approach…

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The driver with the unlikely name of John Smith, was bored of these routine pickups and drop-offs. He knew it was to a weapons facility, but as a soldier they could have him do something else, something more productive. Then his partner Carlos got his attention.

"Hey, look over there," he said, pointing to the other side of the road. A lone woman was standing there, trying to get their attention. He pulled up to where she stood and set the truck into neutral. She was slightly taller than average height, with short dark blonde hair. She appeared to physically fit as well. She appeared to have a tattoo on her left arm. Apparently this dull supply run was about a little more interesting.

"Hey, gorgeous, need a lift?" he asked.

"Yeah, my boyfriend and I had a fight, and he dumped me here," she replied as she approached the truck and stepped onto the railing that would allow her to climb up into the cab. Just as he down to check his watch, he looked up to see a small laser pistol pointed straight at his head. He hoped Carlos would help him out, but didn't get a response out of him. He felt the truck rock a little bit and saw out of the corner of his eye that a large armored figure was pointed a very large gun at him. He raised his hands in surrender.

"Get out of the truck," she commanded, and he complied, not wanting to die.

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Aidan pulled the truck to a halt as he came up on the security gate in front of the entrance, into the target facility. One of the guards approached as he pulled to a stop.

"You're late," the guard said.

"I know, the truck broke down, and it took us an hour or so to get it to run again," he said as he handed the guard his stolen identity card. To verify his story, he gunned the engine, which let out a rough, coughing bellow instead of an even roar. The truck was skillfully sabotaged by Private Hawkins, his team's demolitions expert, who now sat in the passenger side.

The drab green uniforms he and Hawkins wore were taken from the two men who used to be in the truck. The guard apparently believed his story and handed back the security card and motioned for the other to open the gate.

"Well, next time notify us, and we'll someone out to properly fix it," he said as he motioned them forward.

"Will do," he replied as he waved a salute. As soon as he got the half the truck through the gate, he cut the ignition. Both guards turned to see what had happened, and it was the last thing either of them did. Two sharp cracks split the air, and he knew both guards were dead, killed by Julia's accurate sniper fire. Without another word the rest of his team and Kemp's jumped out of the back of the truck and rushed into the compound. Aidan and Hawkins donned their armor which was brought out from the back of the truck. Once Aidan locked the last piece of armor into place, he spoke into his chin-mounted mike.

"Alright, everyone in?" he asked. After receiving confirmation of the status of his teams, he started to rattle off orders. "Alright, Ghost Team will take the command center, Spectres Two and Four will remain outside to watch for possible enemy reinforcements. Spectres Three, Five and Six, you'll set the explosives in the various locations laid out in the plans. Spectre Seven, you're with me."

He looked around as Ghost team went in search of the command center. Three of his men, Steiner, Hawkins and Deveroux, would plant the explosives used to demolish this place. Akida and Marks would stay hidden outside the compound to provide overwatch. He and Meia were going to head for the hangar, to recover Meia's Dread.

"Alright, let's get moving," he said to Meia as he lifted his gauss rifle.

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"Why hasn't the Indomitable activated the device?" Magno asked BC.

"I don't know Captain, they've had ample time to do so.," BC replied.

"Perhaps it malfunctioned?" Magno stated as she watched the battle rage around the Nirvana.

"Perhaps, but we should take advantage of this, before they can activate it," BC said. "All Dread Teams, you're orders are to destroy that battle cruiser at any cost!"

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The end is approaching… Feedback always appreciated.


	29. Chapter Twenty Eight: Endgame, Part One

Disclaimer: I do not own Vandread.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Twenty-Eight: Endgame, Part One**

_Location: Weapons Testing Facility Beta_

Sergeant Garth Kemp advanced forward with his team, covering the area to the command center. There objective was to storm the command center and secure it. After that, they were to download all available data from the computer's main databank. This was going to be easy, as they had managed to make it in without the slightest amount of attention to themselves. Apparently, they believed themselves to be so secure that they had thought of an attack on them was next to impossible. So far the only personnel who spotted them had been silently taken care of.

"Alright, Ghosts, once we enter the building, we head straight for the command operations room, our objective is to secure the room and download the info," he went over the objective with his team. "Move out."

Like the team's namesake, they moved silently despite the fact they were wearing heavy armor. Once they made it to the doors leading the control room, Kemp gestured for one of his men to plant a breaching charge on the door. About ten seconds later the doors blew open and the team bolted into the room, gunning down the stunned guards, as well as several technicians. Kemp walked up to one of the consoles and shoved aside one of the dead techs and accessed the computer terminal. He inserted an encoded disc and began to go to work. It took a few minutes to complete the download, and then he removed the disc and but in a pouch on his combat webbing.

"Alright, Primary Objective Complete, let's get out of here," he said to his team. One member of his team stayed behind and pulled the pins on a couple of incendiary grenades and tossed them into the room, then rejoined the rest of the team.

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"Alright, you guys are startin' to piss me off," Hibiki cursed as he had to dodge yet another blast of laser fire from the Indomitable. He and Dita then combined to deliver a more telling blow to their enemy, which for some unknown reason, had yet to activate that dreaded P.N. Device.

Vandread Dita suddenly moved in to attack the Indomitable, only to be deterred once again by an impressive barrage from the Indomitable. They were forced to take evasive maneuvers or get blasted into molten particles. The choice was obvious, given to the fact that neither of them were planning to die any time soon. They took aim and blasted yet another turret on the ship, destroying more of it's weaponry.

"You Ready?" he asked Dita.

"Yeah!" she replied in her ever cheerful manner as they charged yet again into battle.

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"Admiral, we've just lost life support on Decks thirteen and eighteen!" the damage control officer reported.

Admiral Graff sat in his chair, giving out orders and watching the battle unfold as his ship, the Dauntless, traded salvoes of hellish fire with the enemy flagship, the Divine Will. He cringed as another salvo from the Divine Will struck the Dauntless' port bow. He gave the order open up the remaining portside weapons batteries to fire as they came to bear on the enemy.

"Alright, it's time to end this…" Graff vowed silently.

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Garth Kemp was in pain. Not too long after they had completed their objective, they had been ambushed by a platoon of heavy powered armor troopers. He had been hit at least three times, a couple from automatic weapons fire and another from a laser. _Damn it, I shouldn't be in this much pain, unless… that last hit damaged or destroyed my medical pack._ He coughed up blood, and it spattered on the inside of his helmet. He began to have trouble breathing, and started to fade in and out of consciousness. He barely noticed his only surviving soldier approach him.

"Sir, all you alright?" the soldier shouted over the gunfire. He identified the soldier as Ghost Four, Private Leon Cameron.

"What does it look like?" he asked sarcastically, as his body was wracked with pain. "Cameron…" he said as he took out the encoded disc and handed to him. "Make sure Spectre One gets this."

"But what about you?" he asked as he instinctively ducked as shots flew all around where they were taking cover.

"Forget about me, just get that info to the commander, complete the operation," he said, after which he coughed up even more blood. Cameron gave him a quick salute and left his commander. He knew he was going to die, but he would know that Ghost Team's part of the operation was a success. It was after that thought that he slipped into the darkness of oblivion…

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Second Lieutenant Heinrich Steiner stood guard with Deveroux as Hawkins planted some explosives on a stack of ammo crates. They were located in the ammo dump, which is where all of the ammunition was stored. Once the explosives went off, the whole facility would go up in a sympathetic detonation. He knew the enemy had to be somewhere, but they'd be foolish to fire while they were taking cover in an ammo dump. That was when he heard the sounds of heavy gunfire and small explosions. He glanced back to where Hawkins was planting the last of his explosives.

"You'd better hurry it up, we're going to have company soon," he said.

"Just finishing up here," Hawkins replied as finished planting his last explosive device.

Once they were finished, they immediately set out to rendezvous with Aidan. They crept around trying to avoid enemy contact if at all possible. They managed to get past the armory when an armored personnel carrier stopped about fifty meters in front of them. Steiner immediately dropped to a knee and fired a rocket from a rocket launcher he'd looted from the dump into the back of the now opening APC. The rocket went through the half-open rear door and exploded. About ten unlucky soldiers and the driver were obliterated in about a second.

But before they could move any further, another explosion ripped into Deveroux, literally tearing him in half. The enemy showed itself to be a heavy power armor identical to the Krieger model, except this one had a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. It had a rocket of it's own, and it used it. The force of the explosion knocked him off his feet, and he knew from experience that the same happened to Hawkins. He got to his feet as quickly as he could, he looked around and saw Hawkins lying on the ground, Deveroux was nowhere to be found. He unslung his gauss rifle and fired at the approaching armored trooper. Three, solid slugs slammed into the heavy suit, penetrating it's armor to deliver a telling blow to the soldier inside. The soldier fell to his knees, and Steiner finished him off with a final shot to the head.

He pulled Hawkins to his feet. "Are you alright?"

"No I'm not, that rocket tore some of my armor and it felt like I was hit with shrapnel," Hawkins said as he moaned in pain.

"Come on, we need to rendezvous with the rest of the team," Steiner said as he supported Hawkins. _If they're still alive…_

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This wasn't going as planned at all. Not at all. Aidan ducked behind cover as several more laser bolts lanced overhead. Meia was crouched right next to him, they were pinned down by a large number of standard infantry. He returned fire, but only enough to keep their heads down. The hangar proved it was defended pretty well.

"Damn, they sure don't want us to get in there," he said.

"Apparently so," Meia replied. "But we need to."

"I know that, but how do we-" he cut off as he saw Steiner help drag Hawkins to their position. "What happened?"

"We got hit on our way over here," Steiner reported.

"Where's Deveroux?" Aidan had gotten tired of using the codenames assigned for this mission.

"Dead," Steiner replied flatly.

"What about the explosives?" he asked.

"They're all set to go, chief," Hawkins said, biting back pain. "All you gotta do is push the button, and this place goes boom."

"Has Ghost Team completed their objective?" he asked.

Before Steiner could answer, a lone trooper with the same camouflage and 'Ghost-4' painted on the left shoulder of his armor approached them, crouching, so as to avoid laser fire. The soldier identified himself as Ghost Four, Private Leon Cameron.

"What happened to the rest of Ghost Team?" Aidan asked.

"They're… dead, sir," he said dejectedly. "We were ambushed by a large group of heavy powered armor. I believe they are headed here."

"Shit," Aidan muttered. "Alright, do you have the disc?"

"Yes, sir," he replied.

"Then take Hawkins and meet up with Marks and Akida. Tell them to head back to the shuttle and prepare to dust off," he said. "Tell them to leave if we are not there in fifteen minutes. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir," he replied as he took Hawkins and left, under the cover of fire from the remaining Spectre Team members.

"Alright, we're breaking through to that hangar. I want you to toss your grenades, that will distract them as we make a dash towards the hangar," Aidan said as formulated a quick plan in his mind.

"Understood," Meia said as she readied herself.

"Major! Look!" Steiner said as he pointed to a large group of powered armor soldiers approaching their position.

"Oh shit…" Aidan said.

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Chapter 28 Finished. Things are coming to an end. Feedback is appreciated


	30. Chapter Twenty Nine: Endgame, Part Two

Disclaimer: I do not own Vandread.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Chapter Twenty-Nine: Endgame, Part Two**

_Location: Bridge, Warship Indomitable_

Captain Argust gritted his teeth as the Indomitable rocked under another assault. He then ordered another volley, this time aimed at the silver Mejalean ship. The brunt of the laser barrage hit the ship's shields, none of it breaking through. He was about to order another barrage, but a crewman interrupted him.

"Sir! The technicians report that the P.N. Device is now fully functional and is also fully charged."

"Excellent, activate the device," he said with a hint of satisfaction. _The tables are about to turn…_

He watched as the energy field expanded and engulfed a several hundred meter radius around the Indomitable. Normally, it did not affect the enemy fighters, except for the specialized few. It had the best effect on the Mejalean ship. The ship's shields flickered and died, leaving it vulnerable to attack. He was ready to finish it. "All forward batteries, lock onto that ship, and fire!"

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"The shields are down! The ship's systems are refusing to respond!" Belvedere fairly shouted.

"This isn't good," Magno said. "If they attack us while we're like this, then we're finished."

"All Dread Teams, you are to defend the Nirvana at all cost!" BC commanded the remaining pilots.

Magno watched through gritted teeth as the Indomitable slowly approached. Several of it's remaining weapons ports were beginning to glow an eerie red. The Indomitable was charging it's weapons for the coup de grace. It was only a matter of time… And time wasn't on their side.

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Supporting the heavy weight of the Hawkins' powered armor, Private Ian Cameron, last member of the wiped out Ghost Team, advanced away from the attention of the enemy and towards the gate. He dragged Hawkins along with him until they within several meters of the gate.

"Hold it right there!" he heard a voice behind him bark. He turned around and attempted to raise his weapon, but due to the fact that he still had a hold on Hawkins, that made his move sluggish. It was then he heard the crack of laser weapon. He felt no pain, and then suddenly realized that the soldier who had attempted to stop him lying on the ground. He turned around to see, and noticed, with some difficulty, a prone figure with a long-range rifle. He knew he'd rendezvoused with the rest of Spectre Team.

He waited until he cleared the base with Hawkins, he told them what Major Mercer had told him.

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"Well, damn," Julia muttered after Cameron told her the situation. She looked over at Akida, the team's scout. "What do you think?"

"I think we should do as the Major says," he said after a few seconds. "But I don't like the fact that we might have to leave them behind."

"Same here," she replied, as Akida helped Cameron carry the wounded Hawkins and started off in the direction of the shuttle. She did not want to leave them behind, but, orders were orders, and there was a chance they'd make it out in fifteen minutes. She soon followed, covering them to make sure they wouldn't be followed.

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Another burst of gunfire slammed into the enemy soldier, eliciting a spray of blood out his back as the bullets went through him. Aidan dove back under cover as several laser blasts seared the air above their position. Since their initial charge had gotten them closer to the hangar, they still had to take cover from the heavy volume of fire from the troops defending it. Not to mention they had a platoon of heavily armed and armored soldiers coming up from their rear.

"I've had enough of these damn sniping games," Steiner spat angrily. "We should just charge them and kill them."

"I know that, but it's not as easy as it looks," Aidan replied. He then saw the first powered armor round the corner. He cocked the launcher underneath his rifle and fired at the approaching armored trooper. The grenade exploded against the armor, which left it in tatters, but the soldier was still standing, and raised his weapon. "Time to move!"

He quickly pulled Meia to her feet as they both bound for the hangar under the guns of the enemy. Steiner took a second to fire his gauss rifle at the soldier. The slug caught him in the chest, where very little armor remained, and went out through his back. He then turned around and followed closely behind.

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With most of the bridge in shambles, and a cut on his head, Admiral Alexander Graff watched as the Divine Will let loose another volley from it's remaining starboard mounted weapons. Both ships had been locked in a deathmatch, with neither of them actually getting a significant advantage over the other. The Dauntless shook violently as the lasers cored into her, but she still held her ground. The fight was nearing it's end, as Graff ordered yet another barrage of fire into the battered vessel. The lasers tore violently into the Will's side, leaving nasty gashes, that bled oxygen as several decks were breached. Graff expected another barrage from it, but none came.

"Status report," he barked to the sensor operator.

"Sir, that last hit damaged the engine and the main power unit. The Divine Will is dead!" she replied. That set off a cheer throughout the bridge. He wanted to join in, but he knew that it wasn't over, not yet anyway.

"I want all combat teams ready for boarding operations," he told another tech. "We are going to take back that ship."

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As Seychelle pulled her battered Dread into a tight turn away from the fighter that was pursuing her, she heard the commander over the commline.

"All Dread Teams, you are to defend the Nirvana at all cost!"

She was a veteran of the war with the Earth forces throughout the last year. She had seen her fair share of battles and seen good friends wounded and even killed by the enemy. She was not going to give these Earth-lovers any less. She began to move towards the Nirvana, then out of nowhere her Dread was hit by a grazing laser blast. She was thrown violently around in her cockpit. She hit her head on something, probably the control panel. She fought back a wave of pain and unconsciousness that surfaced. She could feel something slick run down her face… blood. She looked and saw that her Dread had taken a heavy hit, and it's control thrusters were damaged. She knew there was a strong chance that she wouldn't live this battle, and she intended to take one last enemy down with her. She immediately broke away from the rest of her team, fighting the damaged controls until she was facing the massive bulk of the enemy warship.

"What are you doing!" Barnette, her team leader, shouted. "Get back into formation!"

"Sorry," she replied softly before shutting the comm system off, and then kicking her fighter up to maximum thrust. She ignored the fire the pattered against her Dread as she bored down on her target… the Indomitable. _I'm going to finish this…_

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Captain Argust was watching with feral satisfaction as the death blow for the Mejalean ship was only seconds away from being delivered. This was to be the end for that ship, and he'd be praised as the one who'd destroyed Earth's greatest enemy. That was, until he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, a fighter that was making a straight charge for the ship. _Pitiful,_ he thought, for the fighter thought it could threaten his invincible warship. He saw that the fighter made to attempt to fire it's weapons, but charged through the fire coming at it like it was nothing. He watched in horror as it got closer to the view port, it was then he knew what it's pilot intended to do.

"Fire! Blast that damn fighter, NOW!" he demanded, although he knew it was too late. "Aww, shi…"

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The Dread collided with the bridge of the Indomitable, tearing through the view port before exploding. The following explosion tore into the bridge, robbing the vessel of it's ability to operate for a short time. Magno watched in grim fascination as the enemy was pretty much crippled in one fell swoop, but what did it cost? The life of a good pilot. Then suddenly the power came back on throughout the Nirvana.

"The systems just booted back up!" Belvedere said gladly.

"The shields are also back up," Amarone stated as well.

"Bart!" Magno yelled.

"Take this you bastards!" he yelled as the Nirvana fired an impressive wall of fire. The series of blue lasers struck multiple enemy craft, avoiding anything that was considered friendly. It surprised many an SDF pilot as the beam curved around his or her craft or mecha. The beams all converged on the crippled form of the Indomitable, tearing and gouging into it's armor. The fusion reactor that powered the vessel ruptured. The resulting cascading explosions literally tore the vessel apart. Destroying anything that was caught in a several hundred meter radius. The crew all let out a loud series of cheers as the witnessed the Indomitable's incredible death.

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"Get down!" Aidan shouted as shoved Meia out of the way of a laser blast. The shot dug into his left shoulder, and from what Meia could tell, it fused the shoulder joint in place, rendering his arm almost useless. She got back up, and looked over to see the heavy powered armor crash to the ground from Steiner's fire. She didn't like this, not at all. The enemy was coming in too fast, and there were too many of them.

"Are you alright?" she asked Aidan, although with a louder voice, as the sounds of gunfire were loud.

"Yeah," he spat. "My arm's locked up, though."

"Go on, I'll hold them off!" Steiner shouted over the gunfire.

Aidan nodded, and tossed his gauss rifle to Steiner, who caught it with his free hand. They both moved into the hangar under the cover fire of Steiner's gauss rifles. She knew it was a hopeless endeavor, but they needed time, and it would be bought with Steiner's life. He would die a soldier.

She watched Aidan draw his pistol and gun down a couple of men that attempted to fire at them. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed her Dread sitting in a gantry.

"Over there!" she said as she pointed over at the fighter.

"Let's move!" he said as he saw the Dread.

It took them a few seconds to get there. Once she arrived there, she realized something. "I can't pilot my Dread while I'm wearing this armor."

"Well then, take it off," he said bluntly. "I'll cover you."

"Alright," she replied as she took off her helmet. She then proceeded to depressurize the armor and remove it. After she finished, she was wearing only the sensor mesh that helped her control the armor. She started to climb the ladder that would take her to the cockpit. It was then she realized something else. "What about you?"

"Don't worry about me," he replied as he took off his cracked helmet and dropped it to the ground.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked. "You're coming with me."

"No, there's not enough time," he replied looking her straight in the face. "Besides, there's no way I can fit into your fighter."

"But I can't just leave you-" the rest of her reply was cut off as he embraced her and planted a kiss on her lips. Stunned, she almost forgot to breathe.

"Don't worry about me," he repeated, "I'll find another way out, I promise."

"You better keep that promise," she said as climbed into her cockpit. She started it up, surprised to see that it had been fully repaired. She immediately took off, blasting through the hangar and flying out into Solaris' atmosphere. After several long seconds, she broke free of the planet's gravity and made into space. Once there, she noticed that a massive battle had taken place, and some of he fighting was still dragging on. She keyed her comm system.

"This is Meia," she broadcast on the frequency used by the Nirvana and the Dread Teams.

"Meia!" came back an astonished voice. She recognized it as the commander's voice. "Where in the hell have you been?"

"Well, it's a long story…" she replied, not finishing her reply, shutting off her comm system. She brought her fingers up to her lips. She just hoped Aidan had made it out okay, that he would keep his promise…

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As Aidan watched Meia's Dread blast out of the hangar, the enemy got past Steiner's attempt to hold them. The enemy was going to find out that they'd screw with him and expect to live. He tapped a code into the small computer built into left forearm. He smiled, and a second later, the ground shook with such force that it felt as if the whole mountain would shatter. He watched as the explosion threw several of the enemy armored soldiers to the ground. With that objective complete, he needed to find a way out of this hellhole. He looked over to what appeared to be a Striker standing in one of the gantries. He realized that may be his only ticket out of here, so he bolted for it.

He noticed someone ahead of him, wearing what appeared to be a specialized pilot suit making a dash for the same Striker. He managed to catch up with the man, who was stunned by his sudden appearance. Aidan broke the man's jaw with the force of his armored glove. He knew he needed to act fast if he wanted to get out of here alive. He made a quick egress out of his armor, and looked down at the unconscious pilot. The suit the pilot was wearing was advanced, and it looked as if only the machine would operate if he were wearing that suit.

After a few seconds, he managed to put the suit on, and then climbed into the cockpit of the Striker. He pulled a helmet off of a rack behind the seat, and put it on. The helmet was closed, with no apparent visor. A computerized female voice spoke up a few seconds after he locked the helmet in place.

"_Pilot Brainwave Pattern Synchronization Complete. Neural Interface System Fully Operational. Releasing Actuator and Weapon Controls to Pilot."_

"What the hell…" he muttered after the voice finished speaking. _This isn't normal…_

After the startup, the helmet screen came alive, like a heads-up display. He managed to get the machine to move as the explosion reached the hangar. He activated the back and leg thrusters of the Striker, propelling the machine upward. He was forced into his seat as machine tore away from it's gantry. The explosion was right on his heels. He wasn't going to die in a place like this, he was going to survive…

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End of Chapter Twenty-Nine, Epilogue still to come.


	31. Epilogue: Aftermath

Disclaimer: I don't know why I still have this here, because I've already made it clear in every other chapter.

**Vandread: The Unknown Soldier**

**Epilogue: Aftermath**

_Location: Nirvana, in orbit around Solaris._

The battle for Solaris was pretty much over. The rebels had been defeated, with only a few of them left. It had been close. What was left was being mopped up by the surviving Solaris Defense Force fleet. At least that was how much she'd been told on her way back to the Nirvana. Meia now debarked from her Dread down to the cargo bay floor. Still dressed in the sensor mesh from the powered armor, and a cut on the right side of her face that she'd failed to notice until now, she looked somewhat out of place.

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye she saw Misty run up to her and nearly tackled her to the ground. When Misty looked up, she had tears in her eyes. "I'm so glad you're alright!"

"Misty…" she replied, as she put a hand on Misty's head, comforting her. "I missed you too."

She looked up to see several people she knew, including Maria, and it appeared that her hair was shorter. After they all welcomed her back, Maria walked up to her, a somewhat worried expression on her face. "Where is Aidan? Wasn't he with you?"

"He was, but he told me leave," she said. "He said that he would find his own way out."

"What? That doesn't make sense," Maria replied.

Letting out a small sigh, she told Maria and all the others what she and Aidan had been through, omitting one small detail near the end, which she intended to keep to herself and Aidan, if, no, when he came back. She refused to think that he was dead.

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Lieutenant Thomas "Eagle-Eye" Ingram, sat at the controls of his Striker, part of a team that was guarding one of the transports that was looking for survivors. He was only twenty-two, but had seen some of the heaviest fighting during this civil war. He was wounded in an earlier battle, and as a result, lost his left eye. The medics had replaced it with a cybernetic eye, and returned back to active service. As his artificial looks cold and lifeless, he had been nicknamed "Eagle-Eye." It also had something to with his excellent gunnery skill.

He kept watch, so as any straggler couldn't pick off the transport. His gaze fell onto a battered but apparently disabled fighter. From the look of it, it was an enemy. Deeming it no threat, he took his eyes off of it, turning his Striker away from it. Just that second, the seemingly dead fighter kicked on it's thrusters and shot off in a direction away from him. Seeing it suddenly appear on his scanners, he turned his Striker back around.

"We've got a live one here!" he shouted into his comm. "Permission to engage!"

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Meia, finally out of the sensor mesh, and back into her original Dread pilot uniform, stood in front of the Captain and BC, when, while in the middle of explaining herself, they were interrupted by a shout over the commline, from the way it sounded, it was from an enemy soldier, and it was filled with contempt.

"You heretics can all just DIE!"

"Captain! Enemy fighter heading this way! I think he intends to ram us!" an alarmed Belvedere said, as she brought up the image.

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After being released to engage, Lance Ingram immediately kicked on his Striker's back-mounted thrusters and bolted after the speeding fighter. The fighter appeared to be heading straight for the Mejalean ship, apparently hell-bent on ramming with it. Since the fighter wasn't attempting to make any evasive maneuvers, he locked onto it rather easily. Before he could fire, a pair of lasers cored into the body of the fighter, followed quickly by another pair. He looked up to see a black Striker, firing lasers from the dual mounts on either of it's arms. It was definitely a Striker, although it looked different, it looked more aerodynamic, more menacing. Moving at incredible speeds, it landed on the back of the fighter. With one hand, the Striker kept a grip on the fighter, and it had what appeared to be a knife in the other. With a deft move, the Striker thrust the white-hot knife downward, into the cockpit of the fighter. After killing it's victim, the Striker let go of the fighter as it went out of control, spinning off course.

"Identify yourself," he said into his commlink, aiming his rifle at the unknown soldier.

"Hold your fire, I'm on your side," the pilot replied. "Captain Aidan Mercer, 4th Special Forces Detachment."

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As the commlink that was used by Ingram was not available to the crew of the Nirvana, they had no way of knowing that the Striker pilot they saw destroy the fighter had been Aidan. Magno watched as the Striker turned and faced them. Suddenly, the communication system crackled to life.

"Permission to come aboard?" asked a familiar voice.

Magno recognized the voice as belonging to Aidan Mercer. When she glanced over, she saw that Meia failed to completely hide her shock. She briefly wondered what had gone on between those two while they were gone. After several long seconds, she replied.

"Permission granted."

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Meia was both surprised and relieved upon hearing Aidan's voice. Surprised, because she had briefly thought that he might have died, because when he made her leave, there were several enemy soldiers closing in around him. And then she heard the explosion a few moments after she blasted free of the hangar. She was relieved upon finding that he had gotten out alive.

She watched as the Striker lowered down into a kneeling position. A few seconds later there was a hiss as the cockpit hatch in the chest of the mecha opened, and Aidan exited. He stood there and took off his helmet. He jumped down off the leg and onto the ground. She briefly recalled the first time she saw his face, after he had removed his helmet on the Artemis. He walked through the crowd until he was standing right in front of her.

"I told you," was all he said, but she knew the meaning. Several others around them looked slightly puzzled as to what that meant.

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"Dammit, I hate ceremonies," Aidan muttered to himself as straightened the collar of his dress uniform. He knew it was a requirement, for it was the official victory ceremony, as well as the induction of the new Prime Minister, Maria Shakov. He was surprised, but apparently she had been unanimously chosen, making her the youngest leader in the history of Solaris. The ceremony was taking place on the newly repaired space station, Gloria, named for the first leader of the Solaris Federation. He straightened out any wrinkles, real or imagined, from his blue and black uniform. He made the sure the saber was securely fastened to his belt, and then walked out of the room.

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Maria was nervous, very nervous. Actually, that was an understatement. She was used to being in front of cameras, having been the daughter of the Prime Minister and all. But during that time, she had never much spoken, as her father did most of the talking. This was her first speech, and no doubt it was being broadcast all over Solaris. Millions of people would be watching _her._ She hesitated slightly, and then walked out from behind the curtain and up to the podium.

She had been practicing her speech, and she was pretty certain that she could do it, even though she had a serious case of butterflies in her stomach. She looked out into the massive auditorium, and saw what appeared to be over a thousand people. Most of them were part of the military, as this was also a ceremony to honor the soldiers who fought and died for their nation. All of the soldiers were wearing the traditional blue-black dress uniform, and some still had dressings on their wounds. There was a small contingent of civilians, as well as several camera crews. She also saw that Captain Magno and several others from the Nirvana, including Dita were here to watch here. She drew a deep breath, drawing strength she didn't feel, and began her speech.

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Standing at parade rest, Aidan stood next to Julia, as well as the rest of his team, listening to the speech given by the new Prime Minister. She first and foremost, honored the soldiers and all the men and women of the military, for their dedication and sacrifice. She went on how to say that without their actions, Solaris would still be under the grip of the fanatical faction that supported Earth. Aidan still knew they didn't get all of them, and what few were left probably went into hiding. She then thanked them once again, and as one, the large group of soldiers snapped to attention and saluted. She had originally wanted to recognize him for helping her, and award him for it. He dissuaded her from that decision, saying he didn't want to be recognized. He was part of Special Forces, which meant he no longer existed, officially that is. He preferred to remain, in his words, 'an unknown soldier, one who is essential but unimportant in the long run.' Frankly, he didn't want the damn media all over him. What she said next stunned a large number of people, including him.

"Since the rebels tore the Federation asunder, this nation will hereby be reborn as the Republic of Solaris, shedding the taint that the rebels put upon it when they assassinated my father and overthrew the government."

That was a bold move, but Aidan thought it would work in the end, as it would still be the same nation at heart. What's more, it fostered pride in the people of Solaris, helping heal the wounds of the civil war. And he actually liked the sound of it, the Republic of Solaris.

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About half an hour after the ceremony ended, Meia caught up with Aidan, who was still in his dress uniform, although he looked slightly uncomfortable. He noticed her and gave her a quick smile.

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

"No, I just don't like wearing this thing," he replied, gesturing to his uniform. "So, what do you think? About Maria's speech that is."

"Well, it was good, all things considered," she replied. "She definitely has a lot of work ahead of her."

"That she does," he said, running a hand through his short brown hair.

"Well…" she said, not sure how go about what she was going to say. "Will you be reassigned?"

"Maybe," he replied. "There's a strong possibility, but not anytime soon. I've received something of a vacation. How long do you plan on staying?"

"Depends, the Captain didn't specify when we'd have to leave, so I'm unsure," she replied.

"Are you for a trip down to the surface?" he asked. "I have a few things I'd like to take care of."

"Sure, why not?" she replied after a few seconds.

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The sky was overcast, but Aidan was used to it, for it seemed cloudy for almost half the year. He wasn't wearing anything military today, only a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, boots and a leather jacket for the cold. It was early November, and winter was just starting to kick in. Meia was similarly dressed. There was a slight breeze, but it was cold enough that he could see his breath. He walked across the grass, over to a gravestone that was identical to every other one in this cemetery. The only thing different about this one, was the fact that it bore the name Sakura Nakayama. It was the resting place of the person he loved.

Meia stood a little farther back, enough to give him a little privacy. He appreciated that, and he would let her know that later. He stood there for a couple of minutes before speaking up.

"Hey, Sakura, it's me," he said, speaking in a soft voice, which was normally unlike him. "It's been a while, but I haven't forgotten. I'll never forget." He paused for a moment, before resuming. "You were the first person to truly care about me, aside from my parents. I know I'll never get back what I lost, but I hope you will remember, wherever you are," he said, laying a hand on the stone, which was cold to the touch. He struggled with his emotions for a moment. "I have to go now, but I won't forget you. Happy Birthday, Sakura." he placed the flowers down in front of her gravestone. He then drew himself up with perfect military precision, and saluted.

Just as he turned to walk away, he looked up into the sky. He saw tiny white dots slowly float down from the sky, it had started to snow. He smiled, then looked over at Meia, who was also looking at the light snowfall. "Let's go," he said, as he walked towards her.

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Finally completed, let me know what you think. I'm thinking about making a sequel, and I'd like to hear your input on


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